He continues, "I also remember 'LOU-LOU' KESSELMAN [Class of 1965] was the first cadet to go four years without any demerits in 30 years. There was also a special young lady who used to feel sorry for the '100+ demerit, one-month restricted, mugs', and kept them 'company' on the weekend tours of the TSES IV. I can also remember how I screwed up by doing a 'good job' of singing out the marching cadence when I was called on by our company commander when we marched from our dorm/ship to the fort each day. This resulted in me receiving the 'dreaded' permanent job. I wasn't as smart as BOB SCHAFFRAN [Class of 1965] who purposely screwed up his initial cadence calling turn and was never called on again."

NEW MUGS MANDATORY - Alumni and friends of Fort Schuyler are needed to help enrolment at Fort Schuyler grow by participating in college fairs and other recruiting events in their areas. The college offers in-state tuition rates to students from 15 states, starting with RI and sweeping down the East Coast and around the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana. The Alumni posted the Admissions Office's college fair schedule for eleven states through October 2003. As ADM JOHN RYAN wrote in a covering letter: "The upcoming months are critical to the long-term health of Maritime College. In the face of New York's fiscal urgency, we have garnered remarkable support for continuing to press our growth goals. We cannot afford to lose the momentum you have helped build. I urge you to continue building relationships with our prospective high school seniors and juniors leaving no doubt in all minds that we are the best college choice for a lifetime of opportunities." All the facts are at http://www.fsmaa.org

SOCIAL NOTES - The New York Times gave big coverage in its 09 March Style Section to the wedding of DR. SHARON DECKER, formerly of the Humanities Department. It's an interesting article, revealing that the matchmaker was none other than Sharon's boss at Maritime, DR. KAREN MARKOE (who also happens to be the aunt of the groom, RICK DAVIDMAN.) The full story, with photos, is at http://www.nytimes.com. Heads ups about this article came from PETER A. JENSEN, Class of 1978, JANE B. FITZPATRICK, Associate Librarian, and, of course, the kvelling matchmaker herself.]

RIP - Livingston Press ("Specializing in offbeat literature") has just published, "R.I.P.- A Poetic Sequence," by former Humanities professor, LOUIS PHILLIPS. The impetus for these poems is Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle - updated. According to the publisher's website, "Whatever subject Louis Phillips tackles, you can be sure that it will be approached with a wry philosophical stance and humor rare in American poetry." http://livingstonpress.westal.edu/RIP.htm

CAMPUS EVENT - Although it doesn't quite replace the student-written newspaper of former years, The Porthole, the Maritime College website's Maritime Watch section has become a regular source of well-written news about college events, thanks, we assume, to the good work of the College Relations department. This week's news item concerns the Order of the Engineer induction ceremony that took place on 6 March. Twenty-four engineering seniors took an oath "...to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of (the engineering) profession." Check Maritime Watch for the names of the inductees and interesting background information on the origin and status of the Order at http://www.sunymaritime.edu