#FREEUAB!

In case my few and far between readers haven't heard this; UAB football, Rifle, and Bowling teams were cut as a scheme to save funding for the University. What is far more likely to have happened is that Football was told to be axed, and our spineless president was more than willing to go along with the idea. In the letter that I sent to him I borrowed a quote from T.E. Lawrence, one of my hero's and perhaps where I take inspiration from in my education. The quote, "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." This quote pretty much states how I feel UAB has been treated by the President of the University and the UA System Board of Trustees. Somebody started dreaming and didn't do it in the comfort's of their bed....
As an Alum of UAB, former (brief) employee of the football team, B.A. in History, with a strong focus to the Middle East, and about to be in pursuit of my Second undergrad degree this affects me very much. First off, when I was a student for my first degree I was very much the commuter student, I would go to campus for school, and since throughout my time there I held a job on campus I would study in the library or, even rarer, hang out with friends until I had to go to work, being nearly every night. This didn't leave me much time to enjoy the "University experience" which meant I missed out on a lot of football games, which didn't really bother me, then I got a job, which didn't last long, with the football team as a manager. I had been a manager for my high school team, but working at the University level was a monster, I had to be in the locker by 6 AM most days, and if it was my laundry night I wouldn't leave until 10:30 PM at the earliest, usually it was Midnight. I quit not long into the gig because I was there for school first and foremost, everything else was second. After going through a nearly suicidal semester I changed to a new degree track from Biochemistry, becoming a History major left me a lot of time, though I was still much the same person. But I did go to some football games, to support those guys who I had sweated, and worked with like a dog to keep ready to play for a month of hell. These are guys, who when a player that had been cut from the team was murdered the next year we mourned as a family, We slept on the locker room floor together and ate meals together. While by the time I graduated a few months ago there weren't many left, and when I return there will be even fewer.
What I feel is going to affect the university even more are the rumors that are spreading around, from this cut in athletics there have also been a blossom in rumors that there will be cuts in Academics; History, Japanese, and Arabic language courses are just some of the smallest rumors and nearly confirmed casualties of this war. When somebody starts cutting academic programs in a University I lose all faith in the ability of this person. Being a B.A. of a History degree I can point to endless moments in time when cutting education is probably the stupidest of things any "Educator" can agree with. While I am not a very good football fan, and in the case of the Rifle and Bowling teams I was an even worse supporter. I will stand up for your causes since their losses signify the beginning of a fall of a University that was once regarded as one of the top Medical research universities in the Country. The University of Alabama at Birmingham needs to be freed from the clutches of the University of Alabama System. I have no problems with the University of Alabama itself, their students, faculty, and football team. I have a problem with the leadership of the whole system. So please join me in Saying #FREEUAB #FIRERAYWATTS!