Saturday March 28 2015

A student asked about a response to registering for the Research Symposium. Here is what Dr. Sosa Fey sent me.

 

 

We are working on the schedule in anticipation of the deadline:  March 31st.

 

We are looking for presenters for Friday, April 17th since a majority of those who registered have opted for a Saturday presentation.  All students who have submitted their abstracts and have registered for the Symposium will be receiving a letter (email) in the next couple of days giving them more information.  We are going to have a couple of optional workshops  this week for those students who need help in getting their presentations ready for the Symposium.  The letter will inform them of this opportunity.

 

 

Dr. Sosa-Fey

 

Thursday March 26 2015

Forbes named USAA, HEB, and Valero as three best places to work. 

The rankings were 11, 67, and 280. Frankly I don't know quite how one quantifies the 

qualitative experience of where one works. As a faculty we have toured both HEB and Valero and I now

several people at USAA.  All are fine firms who express a real interest in their people. But then so does Zachary HOLT CAT, and Tesoro and so it goes. 

The San Antonio Austin Growth Corridor is one of the best in the USA or on the planet for that matter. 

Be glad you are in such a rich growth environment. 

Tuesday March 24, 2015

 

Jeff Cooper served in the Marine Corps in WW II and Korea.  He founded the Gunsite Training Academy which is still doing a lively business today.

Of interest to us in becoming better students is Jeff's creation of a Color Code Awareness System. See the first link for a detailed explanation.

Jeff makes the point that most people wander around in what he calls Condition White, unaware of what is going on around them and not taking the interest to observe it.

He escalates the level of awareness from White  to Yellow Orange Red. He is addressing the concept of personal danger, and by the way we see a lot of that reported in the news every day.

Here is a practical application of what Jeff means about your personal safety. How often do you see someone wandering across the parking lot talking on a cell phone, oblivious to what is around them. This is how car jackings take place. You are at your most vulnerable when you have the key and open the door of the car, that is the moment a thief is most liable to attack taking the car and  perhaps yourself in the process. Staying off the phone, examining the area, walking with a friend, looking inside the car before opening the door, all these simple things could prevent a disaster.

We can however use the same idea in analyzing just how ready and engaged you are as a student, particularly all of you who tell me you intend to take the CPA exam.

I posted a letter from a Baylor student about her preparation for the CPA exam. Clearly she is in condition red, alert and aware and prepared.

What condition are you operating in?  Just this past weekend I got multiple e mails from students who just could not imagine why they got kicked out of an on line exam. An examination revealed they simply started too late and the deadline kicked in.

Jeff made these comments on the confusion the government added to the situation by issuing colors based on the situation rather than the mindset.

Considering the principles of personal defense, we have long since come up with the color code. This has met with surprising success in debriefings throughout the world. The color code, as we preach it, runs white, yellow, orange, and red, and is a means of setting one’s mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence, and is not as easy as I had thought at first.

There is a problem in that some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in, but rather in a mental state which enables you to take a difficult psychological step. Now, however, the government has gone into this and is handing out color codes nationwide based upon the apparent nature of a peril. It has always been difficult to teach the Gunsite color code, and now it is more so.

We cannot say that the government’s ideas about colors are wrong, but that they are different from what we have long taught here. The problem is this: your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation. You may be in deadly danger at all times, regardless of what the Defense Department tells you. The color code which influences you does depend upon the willingness you have to jump a psychological barrier against taking irrevocable action. That decision is less hard to make since the jihadis have already made it.

I added the bold id for emphasis. Frankly most students are in condition white in class, they have

not read the book

failed to work the problems

and therefore cannot possibly follow the discussion in class

As Jeff says your mind set is dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation, which is to say paying maximum attention in class brings maximum results

Preparation, Participation, Practice = Results

Hmm, I like that.

 

And that is what Jeff means by Condition White. Plan to upgrade your level of awareness.