Monday Meanderings - 1.22.2018

Recently, news concerning my Alma Mater showed up, interestingly enough, in the local Austin Statesman newspaper. The attention-grabbing headline was “Abilene Christian University vs. Hooters: Who is surprised by this?"

The article, citing a story in the Abilene Reporter News, describes the tension that currently exists between the University and its just-opened neighbor, a Hooters restaurant.

Hooters, a Florida-based chain of casual dining restaurants, proclaims that it is known for "wings and waitresses." If you have just arrived on this planet, Hooters is the preeminent example of that type of business establishment best described as a "breastaurant." Or so they tell me. I'm pretty sure that I have never patronized a Hooters restaurant. I'm old and I forget things, but I think I would remember dining there if the photo that accompanied the article is accurate. But they it may be fake.

ACU's connection to this stems from a statement issued by the University regarding employment opportunities at their new neighbors. While not actually forbidding ACU students from working at Hooters, they do strongly urge its students not to apply for a job there. The Abilene Reporter-News has reported that the university released this statement: “We have asked students to consider both what Hooters represents, and whether that is something they really want to support in terms of both their faith and the value this business model places on women."

The Reporter-News article then goes on to mention that  that students at McMurray University are free to apply to the restaurant without fear of ramifications. Those Methodists! No word yet from the Baptists at Hardin-Simmons. They are all probably still lined up at the Hooters Employment Office.

That about sums up the Reporter-News story, but the Statesman writer, Dave Thomas, seems fascinated by all the "Thou Shalt Nots" he found while poking around on the ACU web-site. Particularly the Code of Conduct in the Student Handbook. I left a link for you, if you are interested; I pretty much know it by heart. I had lots of conversations about various topics in the Code with the Dean and others during my tenure there. Purely hypothetical, of course.

About the only thing that was new to me was the section on the Internet, which wasn't around back in ought-sixteen, when I was there. That and the fact that there are now monetary fines for violations. If they had fined me, I might still be paying my college debt. I might have had to get a job at.... Oh, wait. Never mind.