In a week, dear Cougars, your summer classes shall be out, allowing you to breathe easy for about three weeks before returning to your regularly scheduled program. As a budget meeting I once attended let me know, this year’s beefed up Summer Program’s hope is to help with budget problems—but of course also to help with your education.

Cal Poly also has a Summer Program, which continues for longer than yours does. That’s mainly because it’s an actual term (don’t forget they’re on the quarter system), but the fact remains. That three-week summer vacation is going to be wonderful. When it happens.

We’ve probably heard it a million times already, and it’s a fact for sure—whatever accreditation problems Cuesta might have, whatever it may do to pull itself out of the hole, none of these things is caused by lackluster quality in its teaching methods. Cuesta has good teachers and good classes that can and have helped a multitude of bright young students settle on their path.

This is why it’s naturally so embarrassing to think of that little fiasco with paperwork that’s caused this uproar. If it were a bad school, we wouldn’t give a damn about accreditation, as we’d be too busy being embarrassed by the school itself. That’s why I think I speak for everyone when I say I’m a little disappointed in Cal Poly for getting its accreditation extended for the maximum of 10 years. Couldn’t you have waited to improve your graduation rates? Comparatively, it makes Cuesta look a bit behind, and we all know that Cuesta is the crown jewel of the Central Coast.

It’s not Cuesta’s fault that you expertly kept on top of things despite major budget cuts, nor that your students cared enough about their own futures to vote in favor of a Student Success Fee. I think we all agree that you have no right to bask in the glow of your legitimate success; it’s what we in politics like to call “showing off.” But, hopefully this lesson will not be lost on you. After all, you “Learn by Doing,” right? You’ve done your “gloating” so now you should learn that it isn’t ... um ... nice?

Cuesta, I think, Learns by Doing, too. It learns that offering more education in exchange for summer break will always net you the mother-load. And the paperwork? That will all be taken care of. Late-blooming flowers are the most beautiful, right? ∆

Intern Chris White-Sanborn compiled this week’s Cougars & Mustangs column. Send you collegiate news to [email protected].