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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Are Canned Goods Weighing Down Your Spring Class Roster?


Several years ago my sister and I took a ten day trip to Myrtle Beach with my eighty-something parents. We had a three bedroom condo with a full kitchen and had, over the course of ten days, accumulated lots of odd portions of leftover food. My mother is a child of the Depression and therefore we weren’t allowed to throw anything out (we’ve never been allowed to throw anything out. There are several good articles I could write on this theme). Consequently, we arrived in the Myrtle Beach airport with luggage crammed with partial bags of potato chips, half-empty boxes of cereal, a sticky jelly jar, two scoops of coffee grounds in a baggy, three cans of Bush’s baked beans, a dozen pink sugar packets, and a quarter bag of Oreos. Oh, and six cans of Progresso soup (when it’s 80 degrees no one feels like soup. Not sure why we even bought it). Needless to say, our chec- in bags were overweight. We had to open all four suitcases and start shuffling the goods among them so that each would clock in at the acceptable weight. This was awkward and embarrassing, and there was no bag that could handle the six cans of soup and the three cans of beans.

The man checking us in was laughing at us and finally asked us why we had all this stuff since we were traveling to Rochester and not a Third World country. We explained that our mother made us take it because she hated to waste anything. He asked us if that included money. We assured him it most certainly did. He then looked past us to where my parents were seated and yelled out, “M’am, are these nine cans of food worth $30 to you?  Cuz that’s what it’s going to cost you to get them home in a suitcase.” My mother agreed that it wasn’t worth the extra cost and very reluctantly allowed us to get rid of them. You would have thought we were leaving a sibling behind. Three years later she still regretfully remembers it as the food that got away.

 A week from today my sister and I are returning to Myrtle Beach. This time we are traveling light. Now that the airlines charge for a checked suitcase, regardless of what it weighs, we are not checking anything. If it won’t fit in a carry-on bag, we don’t need it. And we’re not bringing back any uneaten food unless it’s chocolate and will fit in our purses.

You may wonder what this barely amusing story has to do with you. The answer? Nothing. But I’m attempting to segue into something that does…the spring withdrawal date!  If you look at your class roster and you see several cans of Progresso soup or Bush’s baked beans weighing it down you have until May 1 to get rid of them. Although there will be no $30 MCC over-weight charge for having extra  students enrolled, you may want to travel into the grading period without a handful of students whom you haven’t seen in ages and for whom you now need to grade an “F”.  Think of me as the friendly check-in clerk at the airport. If you grade these students now with a “W” it will save you the need to give them an “F” next month.

It’s easy to withdraw students in Banner---no bubble-in forms. Just go out to your roster and give them a “W” grade, and be sure to include the last date of attendance. When it’s time to do your grading you will have less students to deal with and you won’t have to feel conflicted about giving an “F” grade to a student you haven’t seen since midterms.

My  parents are no longer able to make the trip to Myrtle Beach with us but they have been involved in the planning. Although she acts like she’s joking, I know my mother sincerely hopes we find those nine cans and bring them back into the family fold where they belong.

Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
04/02/2010