Getting Expelled in College

I’ll spare you the suspense, I didn’t get expelled in college, but I did get very close to it. It’s 1984 and I’m in the junior year of my Bachelor’s Computer Science program at Purdue Calumet University. What could I have possibly done to get into this institutional predicament?

I had been working on a computer degree for three years by then. Don’t kid yourself, these degrees are hard. But if you have the aptitude for math, logic and a bit of curiosity thrown in, you could do alright. I was doing alright. I wished my grade point average was higher, but I was going to school full time plus working full time. I rarely slept to keep up with my homework. But I was young and ambitious.

By my third year, I was settling in quite well. I ate up every computer topic and did alright in the general studies too. Remember it was 1984, so most of the technology that we think of today simply did not exist. We had loads of mainframe classes because there was an IBM 360 on campus. There was an AS-400 for pseudo-conversation online development. This would later become (for a time) the software behind ATM’s. There was a VAX online system that I remember as having amber colored screens. It was the new wave of technology that was making leaps and bounds over IBM’s towering legacy, a familiar issue that has brought down many business giants over the decades. Legacy spells trouble. Then finally there was a little PRIME 300 system in it’s own room bothering no one.

In my second year I had taken a course using the PRIME system and knew it well. It suffered from not having a CHARACTER editor, but rather a LINE editor. This meant that if you were creating/editing your computer code and identified a mistake, you would have to re-type the whole line. And let’s make it even more ridiculous to today’s standards. The editors were upright PAPER editors. That’s right if you were in the middle of printing your code and the box underneath the editor ran out of paper, it just kept printing on the wheel that supports paper that is no longer there. But like I said, it was 1984. We’ve come a long way. So, I wrapped up my PRIME 300 class in 1983. Done. Probably got B or B+. So why was I back in the lab room again in 1984? That’s what got me into trouble in the first place.

You see, I had a friend, actually a very dear friend still to this day, who was on a slower trajectory making his way through the same Computer Science program I was on. His PRIME course showed up on his class schedule in 1984. My friend Jim had more than enough aptitude in math, logic and more so when it came to curiosity so he and I would spend time discussing and supporting each other in our newly developing career skills. We would meet and talk for hours about his classes and mine. That’s when I learned that he was starting a summer course in the PRIME lab room.

What came over me? I cannot say for sure. I found myself moving out of my own character. I began to take on an almost presumptuous scholarly mentality. I knew something that he had not yet learned. I have never in my life had a superiority complex, but looking back forty years later, that’s exactly what it looks like to me now. Maybe I could write it off as immaturity, maybe. It’s probably what led me down this path that nearly got both Jim and I expelled. If you got thick skin then keep going. We are almost to (let’s call it) the incident.

It started so simple and small. “Show me your text book Jim” “Here it is” Jim returned. “Ah, see here, these programming structures are very useful. You should focus on them and get good at them. They will make the later lessons go easier” I pointed out with newfound authority. Flipping through the whole book, I pointed out interesting facts and nuances to the PRIME language based on knowledge I had already acquired. I was going off the deep-end quick and I wasn’t sure I even knew myself anymore. But I couldn’t stop. That weekend I decided to extract my old PRIME manual from my book shelf and read it again from cover to cover. I learned new things that were never discussed in my lectures, assignments never given. It was understandable though. I was learning advanced topics centered around the administration of data structures and user & groups. Users & Groups. Here we go…

I learned how the professor of the class set up herself and her students, complete with all of the security and permissions to manage a well-run and secure student-class on the PRIME system. The processes she must have followed were straightforward, well documented and fairly easy to understand. That’s when it hit me. Oh, Michael, the forbidden fruit of this Superiority Complex is so tempting and tasty…

The weekend was over. I had neglected my homework spending hours on a concept, nay, a plan, no, a scheme. I believe now it might have been a scheme. But again, it started out so innocent and sincere. I was sitting at a PRIME editor in the forsaken lab room. I didn’t even remember driving to the campus that day. I was obsessed with this idea (it was a scheme). I was sitting at this editor and typing commands. I couldn’t believe it. I was creating a new administrator and a new class of students. I was going to be the instructor and have one student, Jim.

Once I started, things began to form. I had set myself up and Jim was well on his way to becoming my only student. I laughed to myself at how much we would do, he and I sharing code, excelling at this platform, Jim getting an excellent grade in this class and it was all due to me, his second professor. Maybe I should go into teaching some day…

Then I snapped out of it. I was the only one in the lab room and it was Saturday noon and Jim was just leaving his class and he and all of his fellow classmates were coming into the lab to do this week’s homework assignment. I sat upright suddenly, realizing how awkward this must look. I do not belong here. The professor and her lab assistant were the last to enter the room. Students had been finding their workstations and settling in for the homework assignment. Jim saw me and waved. I started gathering my things, planning to make a hasty departure.

“Professor, I can’t log in” “Me either” “Nor can I” The room filled with similar declarations. Nobody could log into their PRIME accounts. The teacher grabbed a work station and tried to login but only failed. The professor and her entire class were locked out of their accounts and I’m the only other person in the room playing admin. Whoops!

It was the lab assistant who unfolded much of the mystery. He was an arrogant, self-declared genius with a personality that felt like nails on a chalkboard. Since I have lost his name to time, let’s just call him Deckard. Apparently the professor had gone through the same admin steps I just did four weeks earlier. When it came to providing a password to her teacher account, she opted out leaving it blank. So when I went through the same steps I did not create another teacher account but actually logged in as her. I did set a password and this led to all teacher/student accounts being locked. Deckard had not yet pieced it all together, not yet anyway. Brilliant Mike, just brilliant! What have you done?

Jim had stopped by to check on me and I had to layout my situation. He was stunned but wanted to help his friend out and his classmates too. But there was no time. Deckard, with the professor, were on their way to find out what or if I had to do with this mess. No longer living in the senseless mirage of a superior PRIME administrator, I simply came clean. “I tried to set up a new teacher and student account but ultimately did little more than apply a new password to the professors account” “You will get expelled for this!” Deckard shouted at me accompanied with some light spittle. Jim interjected, “Mike was just trying to show me new things on this wonderful platform” I looked at my shoes with little more to add, thinking to myself, “Jim don’t get involved” Things were looking bleak. Then the professor spoke, “I see what has happened I understand enthusiastic students and their hunger to learn. Perhaps we can just fix my account and let this stay behind all of us” I looked up from my shoes toward Deckard who was burning holes through my eyes with his frustrated glare. I turned to the professor, “Here is your new password. I think if you log in you can manage the students and unlock them… and I appreciate your understanding. I now realize what I did was wrong and it won’t happen again” “Very well. Deckard, can you take the password and unlock the accounts? I have to address the students. I think there is a valuable lesson here for everyone”

Actually the events of the day were not ever lost on me. Over decades of working on computers I never forget that day. Hundreds of times with my finger on a keyboard button, I paused and reflected and often removed my hand. Repeating a bad decision whether on purpose or by mistake can often be avoided if thorough thought and consideration is applied.

So Jim didn’t get expelled. I didn’t expelled and we prospered in our fields of work for many years. We are both retired now and have a good laugh over a glass of wine when we return to that day. We wonder where Deckard is now.

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