If I remember correctly, it was, “Babson Lacrosse… you can Suck it!”

Seriously. Watch this clip to see her speech:

(You can also catch the clip at YouTube or Gawker.)

If (like me) you had no clue what was going on, you might have thought she had a beef with the Babson Lax team. But it seems that the problem was just with one member of the team, or perhaps someone who just thought “BabsonLacrosse” seemed like a cool username.

See, BabsonLacrosse was one of the posters in an online forum who dissed Tina Fey. And Tina decided to call him/her out on national television!

(More discussion is here.)

Anyone know who this infamous Babson student is?

Anyway, it’s kind of funny. This is probably the most press coverage Babson has ever had!

And they’re eating it up:

I have not posted for a good long while, why do you ask? I guess I have not had enough contempt for Babson built up in order to drive me to express my disdain via blog post.

So, since I graduated this last September (which in itself was a bit of a rough landing; we had to start tossing passengers to slow the descent…it wasn’t pretty), I decided I would pursue my dream of purchasing a motorcycle, then driving across this huge-ass county to none other than sunny California. The trip was great…blah blah blah…I arrived in San Diego.

For three months, I tried to get a job. At first I was picky. Then I lowered the bar, and I then I almost broke the damn thing because I slammed it so hard into the ground. The fucking bar couldn’t get any lower. I figured, maybe I just didn’t have enough experience? But I’ve had 2 internships, AND I’ve ran my own apparel company for the last 2 years! What on Barefoot’s Green Earth could be preventing these people from not calling me back? Not one e-mail, not one phone call in 3 months and over 100 applications, with varying follow up tactics, and cover letters. Every position was entry-level (some internships), I certainly wasn’t shooting for the stars, and if I was, I hit my fucking foot. I was working a retail job, and hated every minute of it, so I quit, and refused to get another crap job and go for the career winner. Nothing. But then I got an interview in San Francisco! Alas, a break! I flew up there on my own coin, and absolutely killed the interview. Even better, I had a personal recommendation from the head national recruiting whom my father happened to be friends with! This was third rounds too, as I had already had two phone interviews. I would’ve bet my life on me getting that job. But, to my absolute dismay, I did not receive the position. I was crushed, and out of money, so I had to circle the wagons, and head home with my tail between my legs. More importantly, I was baffled…they hadn’t asked for my GPA (which isn’t too stellar), and I had inside people sending notes to the small branch telling them to hire me…so what went wrong? I received a note from my fathers friend, the Head Recruiter telling me the name of the other candidate (there were only two, me and her). I facebooked her, my jaw dropped: she was a recent grad from a local California Technical College, about one step up from a Community College.

But then it dawned on me: why would they choose her over me? Because not even the goddamn internet has heard of Babson College once you get out of the North East. I asked around. No one had heard of it. Especially not employers. I was a man who was holding the worlds largest ball of shit, and hidden deep inside was a tiny gold nugget known as “Babson”. Babson’s marketing is a fraud, a scam. Students are being bamboozled into thinking that the college has national pull, when it couldn’t be more localized.

Now for the skeptics in the audience, let me add a constant. I returned to my home in Connecticut (reluctantly, and broke) and using the same Craigslist, Monster, CareerBuilder resume-carpet bombing technique I used in San Diego, I was astonished. Within three weeks, I had 3 interviews. Within six weeks, I had an offer, with four other interviews lined up. I had a choice of where I got to work. My job I have now is great, I couldn’t be happier, nor could I be in a better position for long term growth. The only difference being: every single interview I had in the North East started with “Oh I know Babson, it’s a great school!”. I bit my lip, smiled and said “Absolutely it is!” every gut wrenching time I heard that sentence.

Yes, the Babson name is worth something. It’s worth a job. But that name, “Babson”, west of Pennsylvania, means about as much as the fake diploma I received on the day I was supposed to graduate with my class in May, when only weeks before I had been informed I was a few credits shy of officially graduating. Thanks again Babson, you got me, you little scamp, you.

Transitioning into a different subject, a more broad one, but still pertinent to Babson, I’d like to discuss Student Loans. Babson’s tuition went up again this year, poor students… So here’s the facts, source: Princeton Review.

All right, hey! 24% of students get financial aid! And total average aid is almost $22k! But…lets run some numbers here… tuition, room and board and meal plan easily total almost $48k a year, that leaves Mr. Average Aid Package only cutting less than half of that per year. So, that being the case, the total for four years cost (after aid) is $104k. Now, let’s assume most of the student who need aid do not have the financial propensity pay in cash, so they take some loans out for…oh, let’s say $100k.

By the way, Babson doesn’t even report it’s tuition now, check this out, right from Princeton Review.

Think the conversation went like this? “Um…tuition is rising every year because we don’t have large enough endowment and no one’s donating and our costs (of flagpole fountains) and faculty greatly outweigh our income…what do we tell the prospective students who want to try and budget out the next 10 years of their life based on our tuition?” [Barefoot Pauses, steepling his fingers] “Tell them, NOTHING!” as he says with a death metal yell.

Seriously, thats brutal, in every since of the word. Anyways, $100k in debt, students are kicked into the (hopefully east coast) workforce to try and find a job, where they will then face…drum roll please… up to an $1,800 payment per month for 15 fucking years. If they’re lucky, post-consolidation, they are looking at $600-$800 for 30 fucking years. Thats a final cost of $250,000-$300,000 after all payments are made on time. The banks’ investment in you being an idiot and the school being a marketing ploy has paid off, and paid off well might I add. They’ve tripled their investment.

Now you might say: “pay it off early!” Ya, let me get right on that with my $35k a year salary, my shit ass apartment, and my used car I just financed. How the fuck do you expect me to make $1800 monthly payments one year out of college? Moreover, how does Babson get away with not disclosing critical information about it’s tuition and expenses to its perspective students?

And on a final note: I have been called by Babson four times since I walked in May and been asked for Alumni donations. You’ve got to be fucking kidding.

Farewell and good night Babsonians, lock your doors, because odds are, you’re being felt-up financially while you sleep as well.

That’s a quote from James Dewey-Rosenfeld (senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Babson College) in a recent article at BusinessWeek.

So on the off chance that you are reading this blog yet still want to go to Babson, that article will give you some tips to get in.

GARDINER, Maine—A lot of speedometers top out at 120 mph, but Maine State Police say they clocked a pair of Massachusetts college students doing 134 along Interstate 295 in the Gardiner area.

Using laser equipment, troopers spotted a 2008 Mercedes SUV and a 2008 Volkswagen GTI just north of Cobbossee Stream. The vehicles were pulled over and the drivers, both Babson College students, were cited for criminal speed.

Police say the men then proceeded to the mountains for a weekend of skiing at Sugarloaf.

[Source: Boston.com]

It might not include everyone, but that’s mainly because I’m lazy. And I have only included professors that stood out for a specific reason. It will point you in the right direction though.

While I’m writing, I’d also like to encourage any other students/graduates to take a little time and do the same, for the benefit of current/future students. (I guess it’s like those yellow sheets we fill out, except that this time our fellow students get to see what we think.)

Here we go, in no particular order…

Professor Winrich

I had the pleasure of taking both Electronic Technology and Natural Disasters with Winrich. He’s an all around great guy, in and out of the classroom. Winrich can teach well, both of those classes are actually interesting, and it’s even stuff you could put to use in real life.

Professor Lester

I haven’t seen her since freshman Business Law, but that class really stands out. Probably because I did a ton of work for it! It was certainly hard, but I learned a lot in that class thanks to her.

It was like a “get ready for real life” class. Lester laid down the law, so to speak, and required everyone to step up and act professionally. The classroom environment, her real-life experience, and the case simulations all added up to a lot of learning.

Professor Ehrlich

Professor Ehrlich teaches law classes, such as Commercial Law, which should be required for any entrepreneur. He’s a strict, no-nonsense type of guy that will make you work, but you’ll learn a lot. He has a lot of real world experience that comes out in the classroom, so if you want to learn, this is the class for you.

(I’d say my law classes were the most useful ones I had at Babson.)

Professor Caspe

Professor Caspe was the man. He teaches at Babson’s graduate school most of the time, but if you ever see his name on an undergrad course, take it! I think the class was “Marketing for Entrepreneurs” or something.

This guy has tons of real life experience, he’s smart, he’s honest with you, and he actually wants you to learn! (That last point is very nice, because too many professors get so caught up in grades and Babson’s grade deflation policies that they forget about the students…)

Professor Shulman

The one thing that stands out in my mind is the size of his ego. He’s pretty funny though and can run a decent class. But I can’t recommend him after I got suckered into taking Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures… It’s a total finance class, despite that fact that it is labeled as an EPS (short for Entrepreneurship) class.

(Fulfilling an EPS concentration isn’t worth taking this class.)

Professor Wain

Wain is a good guy that you can find in the Accounting division. He’s friendly and attends sporting events, so he’s in tune with campus. While I’ve never had him as a professor, I will say that I learned a lot more when he substituted in my Managerial Accounting class than when the normal prof was there…

Professor Krigman

She’s a finance professor. But despite my lack of interest in finance, I was able to learn stuff in her class.

Professor Govoni

Govoni teaches marketing and he’s a good guy. His tests are super hard and nit-picky though, so if you have him, read the book word-for-word.

Professor Coyle

He was there bright and early (8 AM) to teach some Accounting basics in IME and he always has good jokes. He’s a good teacher, too, and likable.

Professor Grossman

If you are into IT, this is your guy. He teaches quite a few IT classes and he’s very smart and experienced. Certainly a good guy to know.

Professor Dambolena

Going way back to freshman year again… He’s an interesting guy and class was fun sometimes, but he has an accent. That might not sound so bad, but calculus is hard enough when the prof speaks perfect English!

Professor Mathaisel

He also taught calculus/QTM/probability and statistics classes. He’s a smart guy and has a good, standard class where you can learn nicely.

Professor Bayer

Is he still there? He taught an Econ class, and the class isn’t so bad, but he checked out years ago (right after he got his tenure I bet.) All we did was read the PowerPoint presentations that came with the book and then take quizzes, which were also the standard quizzes provided by the book’s publisher.

Professor Frost

I think he retired, but his Physical Anthropology class was something else. He was way too into the subject for being at a business school, where students can’t help but slack off in the liberal arts classes.

Professor Platt

Opposite from Physical Anthropology was this class Cultural anthropology. It was packed with good stuff.

Platt is a great professor, the books we read were genuinely useful and interesting, and I learned stuff in there I’ll carry with me forever. If I remember correctly, she does a World Religions class as well, which is good.

Well there you go. Use it wisely. (Sorry if I left out some professors, but this post took long enough to write as it is!)

As noted at Daily Slop and Campus Entrepreneurship, the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business has been named the nation’s top graduate program for 2007 (by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.)

You can learn all about it in this press release. There’s a great article in the school paper, too, which basically says their school is the best.

What will Babson’s response be??

We have guides to surviving all aspects of Babson. If you haven’t seen them, here they are:

• Babson Survival Guide
• Babson Housing Guide
• Babson Professor Reviews
• Babson Course Overview

We have more in the works, too, so stay tuned!

(And if you have any requests, please post a comment below.)

1. September 17, 2007

Dear Coleman Residents, 

Over the past few weekends, Coleman Hall has had a significant amount of damage to the building.  Facilities are diligently working to keep the building clean, but due to chronic vandalism we are forced to take further action.  Over the past few weeks there has been broken doors, broken cabinets, vomit on the floor, numerous purposely clogged toilets, and many other incidents of vandalism.  This behavior is not acceptable and needs to stop immediately.  In order to prevent any more damage to the building we will be authorizing Public Safety to do random walkthroughs of the building during peek times on nights and weekends.  This is not our usual approach to patrolling the building, but due to a general lack of respect for the space that you live, we felt it necessary to add supplemental support.  If the vandalism stops and improvements are made, we will reconsider the decision.  We also want to note that the floors responsible for this vandalism will be charged for the broken items and cleaning unless someone is found responsible.  We encourage all of you to take an active role in making Coleman Hall a great place to live.  Take pride in your building and keep it in good order not only for yourselves but future classes as well.  We work very hard to make Babson a great place to live and ask that you respect that by not vandalizing the residence halls.  If you have any further information on these incidents feel free to see your RA or email us with any concerns, questions, or information.  Thank you very much

2. Monday, September 24th

Hey guys,

As most of you are probably aware, we’ve been having some serious issues in Coleman regarding vandalism and just flat out disrespect for the building.

There is trash in the hallways on the weekends and it doesn’t seem to be because of lack of trash cans.

The bathrooms are continually being vandalized. Toilets are being clogged purposefully with beer cans and the showers are being broken.

You are being charged for these damages and will receive a bill at the end of the year. If you’re causing the damages, stop. It’s not fair to those that have to live here. If you see someone doing something that you’ll probably get charged for, stop them. If you are uncomfortable confronting them, let me know and I’ll figure it out.

In regards to food, we have a common kitchen that you are free to use. If you choose to use it, clean up after yourself.

Don’t throw away food in the sink and leave it there, it’s pretty gross and clogs the sinks.

There have been incidents where food and trash have been disposed of in the hallway. That’s disgusting. Walk 3 feet to the nearest trash can. We’re starting to get roaches because of this problem.

The Facilities workers will not pick up your trash barrels in the hallway. If you leave them in the hallway, they will take them and you will get charged for losing your trash barrel.

Check out the pictures I’ve attached and please just treat the building with respect, it’s your home this year. Don’t do anything here that you wouldn’t do in your own house.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions,
[RA's Name Removed]

 (These 3 are dated 9/10/07)

(The first from the 23rd and the second from the 24th)

My Response

excuse me, but this is a little ridiculous. I personally feel its outrageous that a different hall in coleman gets trashed almost every weeked, and now every resident is paying for it? I sincerely discourage the use of threats of damage fines and would much rather see the RA go around and write up people for things outside their door or infractions during party hours.

The bathrooms though? Why would residents trash the place they need to go to be clean? It really sucks to walk in to a messy problem where it looks like a lot of people thrashed some place, but doesn’t it seem that one coleman resident throwing a party would be a much more logical assumption when trying to accuse someone? I mean, why would we residents want to destroy our own bathing facilities? Honestly, Kevin and Jess, and all the other RA’s, I feel like in times like this you are now warranted to do the check ups on hallways that you are already responsible for. Why? Not to bust the parties up, not to be a babo informant, but to be simply the one who holds residents accountable for their lifestyles here.

If this were a community living dorm, like O-tower last year (which was basically a war zone every weekend), I’d be ok with splitting the damages with my fellow tower-mates. But this is not a tower. I moved out of the that tower so I wouldn’t have to deal with this again. And now, even with Babo and RA’s supposedly making rounds, they haven’t caught anyone responsible for this? I find that very very very hard to believe. And finally, looking at the list of people that received this email, I wonder why the hell are we getting it. Our wing hasn’t even been that bad except for weekends when they forget to grab the extra 30 gal barrels they leave us. I mean, for christs sake, our hall has even been recycling!

In the end, get off our asses and get off of yours and do a better job policing the dirty areas like you said you would. Please, and thank you.

Bryan “Reverend Esby” Steward

PS:  That ain’t no cockroach.  I don’t know about you readers out there, but I personally don’t know many cockroaches that scurry about in broad daylight, let alone pose for flash photography…

But that’s what happened in this story about customer service.

An elderly man made a sign and spent the day sitting outside the entrance to his local WalMart holding the sign! Here’s what it said:

WAL-MART SCREWED ME

YOU’RE NEXT

I have a feeling I’ll be doing that kind of stuff when I’m old. But for now, anyone want to hold a sign like that outside Trim? I can see it now…

TRIM GAVE ME THE SHITS

THEY’LL GET YOU NEXT

Any volunteers?

First and foremost of the crapcampus priorities, we now are arranging regular weekly meetings with the office for undergraduate deans! Finally someone is willing to bring us in to the reformative process that babson needs! Although, our consulting comments/critiques are still being offered for free, we are excited to embrace our new friends in Babson’s faculty.

PREPARING FOR WAR: Babson’s Blue Collar War

To remind our old readers, and for those who don’t yet know, I’m a blue collar boy in my roots. Both parents, grandparents and other immediate relatives, are blue collars. I’m also the son, of a Local Union VP for the International Association of Fire Fighters. The union blood and rough working hands run deep and strong with unbreakable pride within this young man. And it is for that reason, that I announce a declaration of war on the managers in charge of facilities and grounds. Shelley Kaplan, Stephen Tolley, and Nick Butera because I am going to name names. Over the weekend, I snapped pictures on my phone, of union work being given away from a deeply and definitely excessively cut staff of Union employees here at Babson. The grounds crew here, has been cut to five people. The facilities staff has suffered even more losses in the past year, after receiving a devastating layoff of 26 employees last summer. What is the worst, is that these guys are doing the best they can and its still not up to management’s expectations. They’ve repeatedly been asked to work harder and harder with no additional assistance. All the while, these guys are saying, “hey, we know this is fucked up, but what do you expect when you are the ones telling us to pull weeds for a week from a flower bed behind a dumpster!?” HEY BUTERA, ITS CALLED HERBICIDE, AKA ROUNDUP! Rather than hire another few employees to assist and adequately staff for the tasks at hand, babson will pay an extra 50 percent more than OT pay, just to have an outsourced company take care of it.What I’ve seen on campus this summer, especially within this past week, is an all time low for the facilities and grounds management. It truly is depressing to think that a school that prides itself so highly in business, lets people run an entire division of the campus’ appearance so poorly. And I gotta tell you guys, though the strike was just a rumor, these blue collar boys are pretty pissed off and more importantly than that, they really are counting on some support from the students and more importantly the parents of students. They like us and they want to keep working with us, but the management is grinding them into the dirt and they simply cannot complete the tasks requested with the staff provided. So when your bathroom hasn’t been cleaned for a week, you run out of toilet paper, or you live in Map Hill and no one shows up to clean the bathroom for a week, remember its not their fault for not getting there in time, its the management that has cut away some of the muscle and overburdened an understaffed department.Now these aren’t even the opening shots, this is just the declaration. But believe, this one is definitely going to be a shooting war. So stay tuned.

We owe special thanks to Dean Hanno for taking an initiative to improve all aspects of student service here at Babson, everything from the gym to the dreaded office of campus life.

Raise your expectations! OCL has been restaffed!! We here at crapcampus, I feel, should consider this a great victory as the purpose of renaming our front page as OCLruinedmycampuslife.com has been fulfilled. Now, I’ve been asked if since such staffing changes have been made, would we consider retiring our OCL attack tag?

I was honestly considering having the web address restored to just crapcampus but the keyword there is “was”.

I’ve currently started a new job in the area that I greatly enjoy and greatly require housing for. The problem is, my housing arrangements end earlier than when Babson’s move in date begins. So I sent an email to my new “Area” director, Dennings Aaris, requesting an early move in after explaining my situation. I included in the email my adress to the concerns for those who would be undergoing orientation in the week before move in, and apparently, my early arrival causes too much of an inconvenience. The 27th was the best they could do. No longer wishing to burden my friends with my boarding, I decided that I should ask OCL if maybe I could move in too, since the sports teams and RA’s and majority of Babson’s dorms are here and ready to be moved in (I’ve walked around and checked and just about everything but Putney is as ready as its going to be). So just about an hour ago, I headed into the office, with hopes high, and for once, with positive expectations. Sadly, my friends, I have only disappointment to report.I arrived in the office, and while waiting to speak to someone like Lisa Virga, I overheard the following the following phone conversation being had between a parent and a student assistant in the office. It apparently was a parent asking about the move in date for their son who was on the soccer team. It quickly caught my attention as soon as I heard the student verifying the parent’s question. The question was can my son still move in early? The student asked, “your son is on the soccer team? No, he quit? Ok let me check with someone in the office….(she goes back into office and comes back to say)…. Yup, I just checked and his move in date is still set for the 18th. You’re all set.” Now here’s a kid who has no need to come to campus earlier other than just the convenience that his parents enjoy of not having to change their orginal travel plans.Things get worse.When I finally start talking to the student assistant, she informs me that the only way I’m gonna get in touch with Virga is through email, she’s too busy running around. And thats when Rita stepped in. At first, I appreciated her stepping to the plate. But as soon as she started talking downward to me, and reminding me of the “old guard’s” policies of requiring an on campus activity to qualify for early move in, I wanted to burst out laughing. My hope for a better OCL was shocked into near hysteria. This gal, got so nasty in her snippityness, and her mightiness of position (excuse while I laugh Rita, you barely have your own desk), I couldn’t help but lash back and try and suggest a departure from their old ways and to inform them that I expected a much higher concern and willingness for student service. If they would have said, well get a letter from your employer and we’ll take it into consideration, I’d have been back before they closed, just so I could have one less thing to worry about. Instead, here I sit, reporting from the library, with no place to live.

I really wish that for this part of this entry, I had a more positive and uplifting finish that would really be a great example of real improvement in the OCL staff. But truly, I will remain a skeptic warily watching, listening, and testing the ranks of OCL. I encourage all of you, to do the same, and to remain cautious of any potential activity with OCL.

TO THE STAFF OF OCL: you’ve been warned. We are expecting major improvements, specifically in your communications with students and level of service offered to students. I won’t go as far as to start saying that you all are already as incompetent, incapable, and infuriating as the last people who held your positions, but I suggest you make damn sure you distance yourselves from their way of thinking as much as possible or you surely will not be here for long. And believe me, I would love to hear of someone in OCL who inspirs me to say, “Wow, I never want them to lose that job. They’re where they need to be, helping students.”As far as me getting our Crapmaster (congrats again on joining the alumni community), to rid them of the OCLruinedmycampuslife curse, I’ll make you a deal. You improve student services, and make sure I hear nothing but positives from the trenches, all the way till mid terms, I’ll get it taken down.If I hear rave reviews all the way through finals, and I see collaboration with SGA and other Student Organizations and some strong attempts at some good events, I’ll throw a luncheon for the whole office, right a letter of thanks and apology, and the food will be the finest Italian Roast Beef imported and catered from Chicago, Illinois. I’d much rather be working to assist you people and help improve what is wrong with your office rather than be sitting here now. I don’t do this for personal pleasure, believe it or not.

That will be all for now. Remember, you can talk to me in real time! Message Reverend Esby on AIM and I’ll get back to you asap.

Signing out,
Bryan “Reverend Esby” Steward