This is for anyone whose life touches a child’s. I know it’s lengthy, but worth the time spent.

Michael,

For the blog…

While Hilary remained unscathed, she did have her first experience with pepper and flash bombs. She took photos and they will go right in her baby book next to the pictures of first steps. There is still a spot in there for her first arrest report.

Jen

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As most of you have heard, this past Friday night, following the televised NCAA Division I Football Finals, students surged into the Southwest residential area of campus and engaged in extreme uncivil behavior, resulting in damage to property and injury to members of the police force. At the end of this letter, you will find a link to the press release which was distributed related to this event.

While the majority of our students possess the maturity and academic focus appropriate – and required – for a successful career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a cohort of approximately 200 students actively engaged in the violence and destruction on December 15th. These students do not have a place on this campus.

I am writing to each of you today to assure you that those students who participated in this riotous behavior will be held accountable for their actions. Following due process, consequences may include loss of fall semester academic record; loss of the fall cost of attendance; permanent documentation of discharge in their file; and expulsion from the University. Where appropriate, students will also be charged with the full replacement cost for destruction of University property.

I am also writing to you, as I have in the past, to ask for your continued help in communicating with your son or daughter. Specifically, please emphasize to your student that while he or she may not have actively engaged in the violent and destructive behavior witnessed last Friday night, the additional presence of students as bystanders exacerbates the situation in two ways: 1) students who are participating in destructive behavior are fueled by the attention of student bystanders and 2) campus law enforcement attempts to apprehend the offenders and mitigate the duration and intensity of the behavior is stymied by the presence of hundreds of bystanders. I appreciate your partnership in discussing these points with your son or daughter.

Again, I write to you knowing that most of our students have been focused on finals and preparing for a well-earned winter break. I did, however, want to touch base with each of you and assure you that we will continue to address any instances of uncivil and destructive behavior swiftly and definitively.

Sincerely,

Michael Gargano, Ed.D.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life

Michael,

For the blog…

While Hilary remained unscathed, she did have her first experience with pepper and flash bombs. She took photos and they will go right in her baby book next to the pictures of first steps. There is still a spot in there for her first arrest report.

Jen

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As most of you have heard, this past Friday night, following the televised NCAA Division I Football Finals, students surged into the Southwest residential area of campus and engaged in extreme uncivil behavior, resulting in damage to property and injury to members of the police force. At the end of this letter, you will find a link to the press release which was distributed related to this event.

While the majority of our students possess the maturity and academic focus appropriate – and required – for a successful career at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a cohort of approximately 200 students actively engaged in the violence and destruction on December 15th. These students do not have a place on this campus.

I am writing to each of you today to assure you that those students who participated in this riotous behavior will be held accountable for their actions. Following due process, consequences may include loss of fall semester academic record; loss of the fall cost of attendance; permanent documentation of discharge in their file; and expulsion from the University. Where appropriate, students will also be charged with the full replacement cost for destruction of University property.

I am also writing to you, as I have in the past, to ask for your continued help in communicating with your son or daughter. Specifically, please emphasize to your student that while he or she may not have actively engaged in the violent and destructive behavior witnessed last Friday night, the additional presence of students as bystanders exacerbates the situation in two ways: 1) students who are participating in destructive behavior are fueled by the attention of student bystanders and 2) campus law enforcement attempts to apprehend the offenders and mitigate the duration and intensity of the behavior is stymied by the presence of hundreds of bystanders. I appreciate your partnership in discussing these points with your son or daughter.

Again, I write to you knowing that most of our students have been focused on finals and preparing for a well-earned winter break. I did, however, want to touch base with each of you and assure you that we will continue to address any instances of uncivil and destructive behavior swiftly and definitively.

Sincerely,

Michael Gargano, Ed.D.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life

This is how my 9-11-2006 started. I pray yours has gone better.

The CEO and analyst of this company called me personally with the answer to my experience. It was not a cruel hoax. It was not a software glitch. It was not even user error! The inaccurate data came directly from the FAA itself. They pulled the raw feed and found the exact results that I experienced online.

They apologized profusely and thanked me for being an unaware quality control test subject. (Insert polite, uncomfortable laughs here.)

The most shocking part for me was learning that this website which pulls its data directly from the FAA provides intelligence to the CIA, FBI, FEMA and countless other government bureaus with regards to national security.

THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION PUTS OUT INACCURATE FLIGHT TRACKING DATA. I’m moving to Canada.

*************************

Mr.Bxxxx 9-11-2006
President & CEO
XXXX Company
Dear Mr. Bxxxx,

My name is Jennifer Sissons, Director, Office of the CEO. I have been a long time XXX.com fan as I use your flight tracking online tool almost daily to track my executive’s air travel. However, today I am no longer a fan.

My CEO Mr. Bxxxx took off this morning from Boston on his way to San Francisco. Being 9-11, I took extra care to watch his flight until it made it safely past NY. Around 10:30am, I checked again to make sure it was safely past Chicago. To my surprise, the site showed the plane heading back toward Boston and had dropped altitude from 36,000 feet to 24,000 feet. For the next hour I watched the plane’s erratic behavior turn south and then back to east with each refresh of the page showing his air speed and altitude dropping. The next refresh showed his plane due east at 10,800 feet with a land speed of 251mph. My travel agent and United assured me that his plane was still on the expected flight path with an on time arrival, yet it was still hard to resist what I was seeing, especially given the anniversary date. The final refresh showed his plane safely over Nebraska at 36,000 feet with a comfortable speed of 506 land miles per hour.

I’m not sure what the problem was. I don’t know if it is a software problem or a cruel hoax from someone with a warped sense of humor, but either way your service is no longer trust worthy and I will no longer be using it.

Best regards,

Jennifer

Jennifer Sissons
Director, Office of the CEO
jsissons@xxxx.com