A Minor Detail

When I was in college, a long time ago, I majored in journalism. I didn’t have a minor four semesters into my academic career at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Heck, it took me that long to learn how to spell Duquesne.  I was more interested in playing baseball than worrying about what my minor would be.

Eventually, I was called into a meeting with an academic adviser whose name I cannot recall.

“Bill, we need to get you a minor,” he said.

“Ok. How about eligibility?”

The adviser didn’t laugh.

He looked over my academic records for a couple of minutes. He pursed his lips a few times and then sighed.  I sat there, in a small, cramped office, thinking, “Uh-oh. This can’t be good.”

“Well,” he finally said, “Sociology is pretty easy.”

My immediate thought was, “Sociology?”  The “pretty easy” part though caught my attention. It wasn’t a hard sell.
“Alright, sounds good to me,” I told him.  So, that is how ended up with a sociology minor.

It also happened to be the only time I ever met with an academic adviser at Duquesne. And he didn’t lie to me; sociology was “pretty easy.”  Although, looking back, why would the academic adviser suggest an “easy” minor for me?  Just wondering.