Blog - Laura Novak

ABCs - and Ds!

8/5/2011

Who am I to say? I never took Soil Science in college, let alone got a B in it.

I did take economics in college but I did NOT get a D. Perhaps because my really handsome Israeli professor was so groovy.

And okay, had I taken Trig, I might have gotten a D too. Which is why Governor Rick Perry shouldn't feel so bad that his college grades are plastered ALL OVER THE PLACE right now for the world to see.

There are a lot of Cs in there. So, when Sarah Palin snarks on Fox News that Rick Perry is a C student, she will be correct.

Only something tells me she reserves that disdain for gentlemen who she knows, deep down in her fluctuating belly, are smart enough to become editor of their Ivy League law review.

But I digress. Read the red link above and get a gander at the adult education of the man who wants to secede from the union and then become president of it. And stuff.

24 Comments

1Doubter

8/5/2011 11:30:07 am

WOW! How was he able to graduate with THOSE grades??? Also, too: THAT kind of ignoramus even DARES to try to run for President of the USA?!?!?!@#$%^&*!!!!

(Wondering if/when we will finally see transcripts from $carah... THAT would be quite an eye-opener also, too, I betcha!

Sarahs Disgrace

8/5/2011 11:44:08 am

Thank you so much for posting this transcript, Laura. Absolutely frightening.

8/5/2011 12:00:08 pm

The saddest thing is that his grades kept him from getting into veterinary school. If he had, he might have made big enough money to have never have gone into politics. But maybe his good hair doomed him to sell snake oil to Texas voters.

dlbvet

8/5/2011 12:09:24 pm

But what I want to know is...how do you get a "B" in Phys.Ed.? Gym class?

I think the funniest line of your post is the one about the guy first wanting to secede from the union and then thinking we should elect him President and just forget that he said that little thing about seceding.

Of course, the nation did re-elect Nixon...even after the Watergate scandal had been exposed. Go figure.

Olivia

8/5/2011 12:17:13 pm

When are we going to see Palin's transcript, medical records, children's birth certs, etc?

lilylake link

8/5/2011 12:29:26 pm

As some diplomas rightfully have "with honors", or Magna Cum Laude inscripted, diplomas such as Perry's should have "dishonorable mention", or "major slacker" on them.

We should be able to see the college records of all candidates - they tell a lot about ability, dedication to education and perseverence.

Conscious at last!

8/5/2011 12:57:37 pm

Wait a minute. Why were there so many courses per semester, like 6 or 7? Is there someone out there who knows about Texas A&M in the late '60's and early '70's who can explain that?

V ictoria link

8/5/2011 07:30:02 pm

Gosh, I'd hate to have my college transcript plastered everywhere! But fortunately I'm too unimportant for that to happen.

Perry did worse in Org Chemistry II. He flunked. In fact, he has done poorly in most maths/sciences - but some of these people don't trust such subjects.

We have to remember, though, that a large portion of the population struggles with academic subjects. For soe of them it is more gratifying, wrt their self-esteem, to mock learning and achievement. They prefer celebrity and credit for achievement (let someone else write your autobiography!) - since actual learning and genuine achievement is too much work.

Laura Novak link

8/6/2011 12:21:05 am

Who among us is perfect? Okay forget that. Perry's transcript is a disgrace. Even I am more qualified to run for president based on that criterion alone.

But unlike most of this narcissistic egotists, I have a mechanism, not to mention a husband, that tells me that wouldn't be a good idea - for anyone!

Google Perry's "report card" and you'll find reviews of the state of the state of Texas. He's done a lot more poorly in life than just in Organic Chemistry at A & M.

lazergrl link

8/6/2011 12:52:31 am

Organic Chemistry is a really difficult course- and it smells very bad, too. But plane trigonometry (a 100 level course) is offered at many high schools- and a D in economics...and Shakespeare?

Melanie

8/6/2011 12:57:46 am

I can't stand the guy, but are we really sure that it's his transcript? The name at the top is not completely readable, but it doesn't look like it says Perry. Whoever it belongs to, I certainly wouldn't want him running the country!

dlb44

8/6/2011 01:01:59 am

I still do not understand why a source in the transcripts department cannot be found at the University of Idaho to copy $arah's college records and leak them to a journalist for publication, just like how Perry's transcript was leaked. Journalists protect their sources, right?

Viola-Alex

8/6/2011 01:29:16 am

Thank God I can write my comment anonymously because the things I have to say might enrage some readers.

Perry and I are the same age. We both grew up in Texas and went to Texas high schools. When I got to college, I was so poorly educated, I cried. I spent three years catching up, so that by my senior year, after badgering professors to help me (and they did!) I had finally learned to write a paper. And yes, we did take 6 courses in those days. Amazing isn't it. 6 courses, no computers. We actually had to read, write, and study-- or at least some of us did.

The other thing to consider here is Texas A&M. In the 70's it was a joke school. An ag school. Only men were accepted, and they were men who liked hanging out with cows more than women. They also had a great chip on their shoulders because they were not at the University of Texas, A&M's great football rival. My brother was a diehard Aggie fan, and like the boys who went to A&M, he was a thick-necked, goat-roping football player. A&M was not known for its intellectualism. It was known for its football team and vet school-- and big bonfire they'd spend a year building. Have you seen the photos of Perry as a cheerleader! An all male military, agricultural university with male cheerleaders. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

So if you weren't smart enough to get into U of Texas, and you planned to ranch the rest of your life after a tour of military duty, Texas A&M was for you.

Later in the 80's, Bush cronies who were A&M graduates started putting money back into their alma mater. Women were accepted, and A&M did everything it could to alter its image and become a world-class research university. In fact, recently I read about some great literary collection in their library. I was stunned that the writer would bequeath it there. (Must have been the highest bidder).

So my point is, you take a boy from a rural high school, send him to a hick all-male university-- AND he gets those kind of grades. We're not talking bright.

I hear the transcripts were leaked by someone who had access. That gives me hope about what A&M must be today. Where the hell is that person at U of Idaho?

Marie

8/6/2011 01:35:11 am

Perhaps this would be a good time to review Palin's bizarre college record, as reported here last year:

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/08/sarah-palins-crazy-college-daze.html

If this information is accurate (and it's all from public records), then it is extremely unlikely that Sarah Palin ever actually graduated from the University of Idaho.

Tada

8/6/2011 03:02:49 am

I'm worried that the Cs may not fly with the Tea-baggers. He may come across as too elite - a know it all. Hopefully the Perry clan will get their talking points together and highlight all the Ds so that the Republican base will still feel like he's still just like them.

mistah charley, ph.d.

8/6/2011 03:15:14 am

Viola-Alex write "Have you seen the photos of Perry as a cheerleader! An all male military, agricultural university with male cheerleaders. I'll let you draw your own conclusions."

That conclusion - that Perry has not told the public the truth about his sexual preferences - is so persistent a rumor that I think it's true.

Lidia17

8/6/2011 03:44:21 am

viola-alex, thanks for your "native" angle and analysis.

Laura Novak link

8/6/2011 04:13:58 am

Yes indeed, V-A, thanks for that inside scoop! It gives us even more perspective on this bizarre transcript.

And Tada, that's very funny. How true that some may find this elitist as it is. Let's here it for more Ds and Fs!!

FrostyAK

8/6/2011 04:51:22 am

Don't plan on seeing $P's transcripts anytime soon. It would take willing people at 4 or 5 locations to leak all of them. If you think TX A&M was backward, think REAL podunkville (or Wasilla) for U Idaho. Has anyone ever come right out and SAID she graduated from there (other than her)?

Creepy Chuckie has been touted as being a teacher. I think we would find that he was a substitute, and in AK subs often did not and I believe still do not need degrees or certification. In some cases a GED will get you the job. Subs might also be athletic team coaches.

I'd like to see Perry's entire transcript, and his diploma.

Conscious at last!

8/6/2011 05:09:17 am

@Viola-Alex

Thank you for that explanation. I am close to Perry's age. I went to college in the northeast and I was an educator for many years.

Based on my own experiences, I would conclude the following-

Taking more than 4 or 5 courses in a college semester is not a good idea-- it would make it very difficult for all but the best students to do well.

I am not a supporter of Rick Perry. However, this transcript, if real, is almost 40 years old. I think it is both unfair and unwise to judge a 61 year old person based on their actions and experiences when they were 18-21.

As for our friend Mrs. Palin we have a different issue. The point, for me, is not what her grades were 25 years ago.
The point is that her academic record is erratic and we have good reasons to believe that she is currently lying about that record.

I challenge Sarah Palin to prove that she actually has an earned Bachelors Degree (B.S. in Journalism?) based on the requirements of the University of Idaho at the time that she claims she graduated.

Get it Sarah? Yeah, I know that the McCain campaign could have pressured some folks at the U of I to award you a degree in 2008, but that's not what I'm talking about. You claim to have graduated college in the 1980's---- Prove it!!

fig

8/6/2011 08:35:27 am

Another note on his course load:
His courses each totalled about 15 credit hours per semester. This is the NORM for students who are attending full time and not working to support themselves while in college. Only once did he take a lot more than that, in his last full semester, when it looked like he overloaded to try and graduate after summer school. Many of the courses listed in those goofy semesters are courses with limited credit hours: World Military Systems 201 (one of his 2 A's) was a 1 credit hour class that would have required little or no work compared to a 3 hour class.

Similarly, gym class is a requirement, but it gets you no credit hours. Orgo Lab is listed as a separate class, but only earns you one credit hour. To count as a full time undergrad, you need to take at least 12 hours (to be eligible for grants, scholarships, and often loans).

Essentially what I am trying to point out is that a typical science grad's course load will look similar, where as a liberal arts major is more likely to have a standard set of 5 classes per semester, with 15 credit hours.

As far as Sarah's transcripts go, if her coursework at Hawaii Pacific, Mat-Su CC, Northern Idaho CC, etc contributed credits towards her degree, those courses should be listed on her transcript from University of Idaho. Since she only seemed to go to college for a total of ~8 semesters, they would all likely have to count to get her the required 120 credits. A friend of mine went to a local community college for the first 2 years of school and then moved on to a full time university. His courses that knocked out the breadth requirements (ie US History 101, English 101,) that he took at CC are on his University transcript. They are listed with credit hours, but no grades.
This is how Sarah's should look too. So only one transcript would be necessary to see if UofI actually graduated her.
Further investigation would be necessary to see if any of those other transcripts had 'white out' on them covering F's with As to see if she really earned those credits.

Lidia17

8/7/2011 08:12:27 am

@Ottoline, http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~cromer/index.shtml

I have not read her work, but I think that there are two main competing trains of thought out there in the world, both Wrong: one is the ideology that we must undergo austerity in order to bolster the rich, such that they "create jobs" (a lie, but quite common and saleable)… versus a general expectation of prosperity and growth should the rich abandon the field, wherein workers claim their fair share.

Given what I have come to understand, growth as we know it will no longer happen. Concurrent to this painful drama, remains one of our main social issues, now and forever: how are the spoils of nature distributed within our society?

I do not hold out hope in traditional politicians, traditional concepts of stimulus, or traditional concepts of growth. We have in front of us a brave new world of declining energy resources, which is an entirely new situation that centuries of "olden" thinking (including the “olden thinking” of 2000 or 2010) is not equipped to deal with. There will be no further “economic growth” as we have known it, if not in obscure and anomalous pockets. How will we and our current and future societies deal with this?

kelgal

8/7/2011 01:36:18 pm

Melanie~
I am a native Texan. My veterinarian is a friend and graduate of Texas A&M (as are most vets in the state).
He was at a party where he ended up in a conversation with a group that included Perry (much to his dismay) and was appalled when the Governor began to brag about his poor grades in college! Perry laughingly told the group that his grades were too low to get into the vet school. So, whether or not you can read the name on the transcripts, Rick Perry himself has publicly talked about his less than stellar academic career.

GhostbusterTX

8/7/2011 02:22:00 pm

Viola-Alex - a bit off-topic, but I'm curious to know which literary collection you were referring to, wondering if it is the same one I'm thinking of.

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ABCs - and Ds!

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