Collegiate Times

You do realize when you tell your children "I missed it; I was in class" they probably won't be the first ones to say "you idiot, if it was that important to you, why didn't you skip class" .....kkkkknucklehead!

must be lowering standards => any hokie undergrad engineering student would have watched on a pocket tv [or laptop] if he didn't want to miss the live circus => perhaps UVA engineering students with inflated grades CAN come to Blacksburg to whine => enjoy the weather while you can ...

I'm confused. You said Tech has a "responsibility as an educator of future leaders" but complain because you had to go to class. This is what you (or your parents) are paying for. You complain that you weren't able to be "part of this national event." Dude, watching the inauguration on TV doesn't make you part of it any more than watching the Super Bowl on TV will earn you a ring. Besides, you got to watch it on TV eventually, didn't you? Lastly, I agree with the first poster. If it were that important to you you should have skipped class. Life is all about choices and you're not always going to be able to do everything you want to do. Welcome to adulthood.

The world didn't stop during the inauguration. Many, many people had to keep working right on through it. We watched it later. BTW, if you plan to have kids, you'd better get used to putting yourself (and your perceived needs) behind others - principally theirs.

You know, for that matter I'm kind of mad at my employer too. I had to go to work instead of getting to sit at home and watch the ceremony. This is almost as bad as the time that I had to go to class when the Law and Order marathon was on TNT (I have since come to learn that this is a daily occurrence due to the fact that Law and Order has been in production since the late cretaceous era) meaning that I would miss many life lessons and pithy remarks from the late Jerry Orbach, may his witty soul rest in peace. Life is about making choices. One life lesson that I picked up from a recent Law and Order marathon was that you gotta to do what you gotta to do. You can’t learn everything sitting in class. Sure you might get a great attendance grade, and you might get an A. In the end though you lose out. You miss the things in life that make it worthwhile to you. Whether its seeing our 44th president get sworn in, or its sitting on the drill field eating lunch and watching the thousands of drones stumble to class. You will spend the rest of your life in an office, or in a lab, or in some other place you don’t want to be, doing things you don’t want to be doing. Lenny says to quit crying and grow a pair.

Sorry you missed it live but I got to watch it at work with my co-workers. Can't have everything in life. Be glad you watched this historical event anyway. I would not haevf wanted to have been in DC in the first place with the mass of humanity.

I agree w/ "Welcome to the real world". Quit your whining.

Love you guys. If you felt that passionate about watching it, then skip class.

I know its importance to me and that is why I chose to just tape it. I was glad to have been able to do so and had no regrets. Mistakenly, I may have depicted more disappointment in my first line then I should have but I was trying to be expressive. What I was trying to convey, and may have missed, is that the school missed a chance at “exposing” their students to things beyond the classroom. There is a lot more to life. I feel a lot of people may have not watched it or even been able to. It was a moment that was important enough that, I feel, that the school should have encouraged students to watch it. I was not expecting a day off just maybe tuning in during the actual ceremony if possible. I expect VT to educate me not just in the classroom but in life as well. This may be a point of contention but that is how I feel and why I wrote the letter. I certainly don't expect them to hold my hand but I felt this was a good opportunity for them to allow us to learn about and appreciate our country and life in general. I appreciate all the comments about my whining they were quite intelligent. I would have appreciated comments about how you felt this event affected students and our country or VT's responsibility to students instead of shoddy remarks.

Or maybe there are more mature things to be writing about and being discussed such as ways to solve the global economic crisis or how many hard working Americans are losing their jobs and what we can do to help! Not to mention the school did host a room to watch the Inauguration in if you so decided to skip class. So before you call us immature to make remarks about your whining, which it is, analyze your own argument. We had our time to be educated outside the classroom, but if I"m going to spend 20 grand to come here I want every minute of every class.

I wrote about something I felt like writing about. If you want to talk about those other things then I encourage you to write about them. I can also promise that I will not criticize you for making them if I don't want to talk about it. I may decide to talk intelligently about them with you. I would imagine my letter was probably the only other letter received and that is why it was published. If you don't want to talk about it no one is forcing you. But there is no need to call me immature. I am not whining, I am trying to encourage discussion. I also did admit in my reply that I may have come across incorrectly but tried to clear up what I was trying to convey. If I am paying for something I feel I have a right to expect something from it or at least discuss it. I also did not call anyone immature. I was disappointed in them because I was hoping for something more substantial. In response to your reply about price I do think that is a good point. I am not quite sure what you mean by "we had our time" though. College is expensive and providing the knowledge is probably the most costly but I think there is definitely an importance to being well rounded if you want to be successful. If a college can do both I think that is a plus.

Don't worry...the Chief Justice flubbed swearing him in so it wasn't the real ceremony. They redid it in a bathroom (better acoustics) in the White House that evening....

While VT did not recognize the historic moment, my professors did. All I did was email them and asked if it was okay to miss the first day of class. After a hard fought battle for space on the metro, I made it to the mall and watched as Chief Justice Roberts ruined what will surely be one of the most played back moments in history. I am not rubbing it in. I am simply stating that your professors probably would have been okay with you missing class if you had told them.

Your kids aren't going to ask you where you were when he was sworn in. I highlyyy doubt it, anyway. And to Shucks-- that was the real ceremony. The first oath, while not verbatim from the constitution, was considered legitimate. It was done a second time (i doubt in the bathroom), just to be on the safe side and eliminate any possible argument against his legitimacy.

you're not the only one who didn't get to watch it...some of us in the DC area had to work that day. Get over yourself!

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