cts | cornell

1986: I took a year off between second and third years to see if I could figure out why I hated school so much. It turns out that the professors were backwards, conservative, and not likely to change even if I went to a different school. After a look at Italy, I returned to school.

At the end of five years, Professor Donald P. Greenberg asked me to apply to the Program of Computer Graphics. He had worked with me on my thesis (which involved radiosity as a means to explore natural lighting in computer simulated environments, and the use of computer rendering as a design tool). He neglected to tell me that I would require an expensive semester of undergraduate Computer Science credits before he would officially accept me into the program.

I didn't realize it at first, but leaving Greenberg without a student turned out to anger him. A lot. He said he had lined up my funding for the Masters and PhD. He was angry enough that he fiddled with my transcript, denying me my degree. (He had changed the grade on a three credit course I had take with him in my penultimate semester.) He had attempted to change the thesis grade to failing, but couldn't get the support of a single other person on my committee.

I hired a law firm. They rattled sabers at the University's general consul. Cornell backed down from "He must return to Ithaca to complete his credits..." to "He can do the three credits anywhere, in anything."

I took printmaking at Parsons School of Design in New York (1993), and Presentation Drawing at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (1994). Ten years after being accepted, I had my degree.