My dad, Brett, really wanted to be a “college dad,” like the ones who are pridefully wearing the t-shirts of their student’s school, watching the football games with you, and bragging to the neighbors that their kid is in an awesome college. It is a happy image, and it is something my dad was excited to be when I got accepted into a major university.

But I was not surprised when, one morning at my parent’s house, I found a box for donations to Goodwill and sitting on top of it was a thick layer of WSU shirts.
“I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “Not with Schulz and Leach where they are.”

I can’t blame him, nor do I really want to stop him. There are common days at the Evergreen where there is more negative than positive news about the school, and a good majority of me is starting to grow ashamed. I can’t even defend my own school to my father, because his reasons are valid.

We went to the football game on Dad’s Weekend, we bought the shirts and I paid for the sports pass. We did so much in support of our team. And now, both my dad and I feel like the money and time we spent supporting this school has been absolutely wasted. There is no fun in this anymore.

Now, it’s like watching a sinking ship try to save itself by poking more holes in it.

“They have been getting worse,” my dad said.

My dad said that the last straw for him was the incident with Robert Wielgus, who was forced to resign from WSU when political disputes interfered with his research. Wielgus had gone through many legal battles leading up to his resignation that were provoked by his research results and a battle of views within the farming industry.

“It’s just sick to me,” my dad said. “The school is strangling research because of their own political views. They’re choosing to use their power to move their views, not support learning or research.”

This summer will be my last semester on campus, and I will be finishing my degree in Oslo, Norway. Though WSU is going to be my alma mater, the reprieve from the school’s mess will be welcomed when I head to another school. It’s too late to resign as a Coug now in my senior year, but my dad assured me, he will still be a “college dad.”

It will just be with the University of Oslo instead.