Text-walk

During this fall semester, I have been spending a lot more time walking around our beautiful Poughkeepsie campus – for a variety of reasons:

1. I teach two classes, one in Donnelly and the other in Lowell Thomas.
2. I currently do not have an office, and so I am poaching whatever computer space I can get – Donnelly, Library, LT.
3. There are frequent visits to the campus center, walking to admissions to work on all things recruiting.

Here’s an unscientific observation: It’s dangerous out there on those sidewalks!

No worries, there are no motorized vehicles on the pedestrian pathways of Marist College. Rather, there are extremely distracted students – men and women alike – who are walking, usually with their heads down and focused on their cell phones or Blackberries or whatever.

That’s right. I’m talking about the latest scourge of our times: The dangers of texting and walking.

Wow!

A few weeks ago, while rounding a corner in the McCann Center, I was almost taken out and flattened at full speed by a group of women’s lacrosse players exiting a team meeting and eagerly getting caught up with whatever they needed to get caught up with on their phones. And trust me, this is by no means an indictment of the fine athletes on that team, which is coached by a good friend of the program in Jess O’Brien.

It could well have been the fine men and women of our program.

Heck, after today’s excellent 1km repeat workout at Bowdoin Park, our very own Quimes was seen cooling down with cell phone in hand! Was he texting and jogging? Apparently yes!

So, be careful out there, while navigating your way through our lovely campus.