Greenfield Community College is hosting a GED graduation ceremony on Thursday, October 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Stinchfield Lecture Hall. We want to ensure that all recipients who graduated from the GED program between October 2005 and September 2006 receive an invitation. Please call Jean Boucias at (413) 775-1147 or email boucias@gcc.mass.edu with your current address and phone number by Friday, September 29.
After four years of being without an art gallery during an ongoing campus refurbishment project, the GCC faculty art show is back in its newly renovated space in the south end of the main campus building. The public is invited to visit the show, which runs through Oct. 13. The show exhibits the work of both full-time and adjunct faculty members of the art department.
"I think it's important that students see their faculty as artists,"? says Professor Thomas Boisvert, head of the art department. "This show demonstrates that what we do in the classroom, what we talk about, what we encourage our own students to do, are in fact what we do ourselves. We teach, but what we do is to make art."?
Professor Boisvert will be exhibiting work that combines his passion for restoring old houses with his teaching focus, which deals with computer arts and digital imaging. "Right now, the word I'm stuck on is 'windows' because I'm repairing and rebuilding old windows and in computers we use 'windows,' though not in the Microsoft sense,"? says Boisvert, "So I anticipate making a piece that's going to involve windows in some way."?
Professor Tom Young recalls that some of the strongest teachers in his arts education were practicing artists. "I could look to them for some kind of mentorship as to both how they lived their lives as teachers and how they lived their lives as practicing artists."? He will be exhibiting work from a volume of photographs titled " Landscape Remembered."? "They are photographs in landscape that work as personal narrative, that talk about memory,"? says Young.
Professor Budge Hyde will offer a large, new piece painted in both acrylic and oil. It is an abstract image from his ongoing "Film Strip"? series. "We try to encourage the growth of students into artists,"? says Professor Hyde. "Some do go on to become artists; some go on to work in other areas in the arts. But that doesn't seem to matter to a person who's majoring in art. They want to do it, and I think their curiosity about who we are and what we do is relieved a little bit when they see our work."?
Professor Paul Lindale will be exhibiting a video interpretation of the I-Ching, which he describes as the Chinese equivalent of the Bible. It is a piece he made last year in the process of learning new computer software for his courses. "One of the advantages to doing that,"? says Lindale, "is it enabled me to put myself in my students' position and encounter things that they would encounter in learning this new software while continuing to advance my own work."?
"One of the things I was really concerned about in making the work was that I remain faithful to the essence of the I-Ching. For a lot of Chinese people, it's what they live by."? The video is a 90-minute piece with 64 different parts to it. "It is the biggest video project I've ever worked on,"? says Lindale.
Professor Penne Krol will exhibit an oil on canvas, floral still-life. "For me, my work is primarily about color and light and exploring how color works spacially."? Krol sees part of the message offered by the faculty art show as being about patience and persistence. "If (students) are patient and persistent, it can take them a long way."?
Professor John Bross has been engaged in print-making using aerosol spray-paint, which lends itself to a discussion of how art comes about. "I'm not the first one to do this,"? notes Bross, who asks his students, "Where do ideas come from? And what's a good idea? Do you start out with a solid idea? Or do you know six months later? I tend to think that there's always that sense of flux in creating art because there's change happening."?
The art faculty show offers a variety of messages for students. "Even though we are quite consistent in what we all try to teach our students,"? says Krol, "when they look at our work, they'll see how very different we all are."?
The show, suggests Young, "is part of a fabric of art which students look at over time, made by many different people. We encourage them to go to museums and galleries, and this is just another step in that process."?
The show also includes: video work from Matthew Newman-Long; photography by Amy Montali; painting by Rick Schneider, and mixed media work from Joan O'Beirne.
First community college in the country to join project
On Oct. 5, over 200 colleges in at least 44 states will participate in a national teach-in titled " Guantanamo: How Should We Respond?"? The all-day, simulcast conference is an unprecedented collaborative effort of academia, journalism, religion, medicine and even the military in exploring the government's detention policy and practices in the "war on terror."? Seton Hall University School of Law is hosting the all-day conference.
Greenfield Community College was the first community college in the country to join the project.
"I remember well how the teach-ins of the late sixties inspired me and many others to choose awareness over apathy,"? says GCC Professor and Attorney Buz Eisenberg, who is a member of the national Guantanamo teach-in steering committee. "I think that people should come, listen carefully, learn some facts and engage in dialogue. That's the first step toward preserving what we have so preciously gained over the last 220 years, which is a representative democracy that's predicated on the notion of the rule of law and rule by a constitution."?
Participating schools can schedule their own programming in addition to the nationally broadcast sessions. At GCC, this will take the form of a pre-recorded session featuring faculty, students and community to be produced in the college TV studio on Thursday, Sept. 28, and aired as part of the Teach-in on Oct. 5.
Professor Eisenberg will open the college's taped segment with a presentation reflecting on how we have embarked on the "Post-Constitution Era of U.S. History."?
"My presentation will be about the separation of powers,"? says Eisenberg. "The executive claims that there are wartime powers that put the president out of reach of the judiciary and the legislature. The president claims emergency powers during this war on terror that allow him to engage in warrantless searches, detain people without charge, and similar seemingly unconstitutional acts. The president also claims that he is not bound by international conventions to which we are signatory. So I will be addressing those claims in the context of our constitution. At the same time, I'll be looking at the portion of the constitution which is the bill of rights.
"My thesis is that we have entered an era in U.S. history that historians will later call the post-constitution era of U.S. history, and my contention is that if we don't put the breaks on erosion of our constitutional rule of law, then our individual lives, our private existences, are going to change greatly."?
A member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Eisenberg has been volunteering his services since February of 2005 as part of a team of lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees. "We feel compelled to do something,"? says Eisenberg, "and we're lucky enough to have law degrees so that there's something we can do to represent one of these victims of U.S. tyranny."? Eisenberg continues to work actively on the case of Abdul-Salan al-Shihry and some 96 other Saudis being held in Guantanamo Bay.
Embodied in the Guantanamo issue are issues that encompass geopolitics, multiculturalism and multilateralism. That broad mix of issues makes the Teach-in pertinent to a variety of subject areas, such as peace and social justice. Professor Abbie Jenks, coordinator of the human service program and advisor to the peace and social justice liberal arts option, was already planning to mark the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi that week with an Open House in the social sciences studio on Oct. 2 and film showing on Oct. 3. She sees the two events as interlinked.
"Part of what peace studies is all about,"? says Professor Jenks, "is taking a look at the issues of social justice. That involves human rights, our civil liberties and international law, and our role in it."? Jenks' students will be watching segments of the Oct. 5th simulcast.
Greenfield Community Television, Montague Community Television and up to seven other local public access stations will be re-broadcasting the event as a public service. "Police states creep up on us,"? says Professor Eisenberg, "and if we don't pay attention, our way of life is threatened. The erosion continues daily, weekly and we have to be aware of it. I believe firmly in the American people's ability to stop it if they understand what's going on.
"GCC has always taken the lead in Franklin County in promoting awareness of important social issues that affect us all,"? continues Eisenberg, "and it's continuing to do so by participating in this teach-in on Oct. 5."?
Greenfield Community College has been awarded $438,020 by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education from a fund available for capital projects to improve health and safety on public college campuses. GCC's successful application will result in the installation of enhanced illumination in the campus parking lots, and the construction of additional call boxes covering all of the parking lots. In an emergency, people can pick up the call box hand-set, press the button and be connected to campus security personnel.
The work will begin next spring and be completed before June 30.
Superior quality control over the recent campus road resurfacing project has resulted in significant savings that will further enhance the campus. By developing tight specifications and maintaining total quality control over the campus road resurfacing project, the college saved $103,000 out of the originally authorized amount of $520,000. The savings will be used to make travel and pathway improvements on campus.
Additional savings have come about as a result of efforts by Harry Gaines, director of physical plant, who worked with a number of vendors to obtain the most competitive energy rates over the next three months.
For more information, please call Richard Hillier at (413) 775-1308.
A national survey of community college students has shown that the more connections students can make " with teachers, staff and fellow students " the greater their chances of graduating. It's a phenomenon known as "student engagement"? and at Greenfield Community College, it starts at orientation. On Sept. 1, 200 incoming students participated in conference-style day of activities and workshops designed to engage them in the college community right from the start.
The expanded program was the brainchild of Admission Counselor Sarah Scarchilli-Janus, who was a 2005-2006 Fellow of the Community College Leadership Academy (CCLA), a year-long, state-wide program to train leaders-in-the-making in the skills they will need to move the community college system forward. As her campus project, Scarchilli-Janus worked with Merryl Sackin, director of student life, to take a fresh look at orientation.
"Orientation is always important to feel your way around the new campus,"? says Sackin, "any new campus, especially GCC, because we're under refurbishment and it's a very confusing place right now. But more important is that you may meet somebody here who you can connect to and feel comfortable with. The long-term benefits could be something like a friendship for the rest of your life. It could be finding someone who can steer you in the right direction and change your entire career!"?
To this end, the new orientation emphasizes student interaction. "I learned how to make a structure out of cards with other people using teamwork,"? said Matthew Cronin of Montague. "That's important because you have to know how to relate to people. I also got a good look at campus. I think it looks very bright, it looks nice."?
The opening activity in Stinchfield Hall combined music, information about the college, national statistics about community college students, and some good jokes in a fast-paced PowerPoint presentation that broke the ice in a big way. Seth Herett of Colrain remembered President Robert L. Pura's story about comedian Bill Cosby's visit to campus. "(Cosby) said that GCC is like going t a tailor shop to get a suit, not like getting one off a rack in a cheap store,"? said Herett.
"We're all individuals here,"? agreed Laura Adkins of Turners Falls.
Morning and afternoon, students chose two workshops out of six from a list that included study skills, building support systems, career counseling, academic advising, library literacy, and accessing e-mail accounts. "All of those things lead to students' retention and staying and working toward a degree,"? says Scarchilli-Janus.
Joseph Call of Colrain went to the e-mail/Blackboard workshop. "I learned how to set up and use our e-mail account,"? said Call, "and create folders using a different Web browser that I'd never seen before. It's important because I'll be able to contact my professors or other students if I need help with my classes.
"I also learned that the Student Senate here is very different from high school; they actually get what they're talking about done, which is really cool."?
Marilyn Sessions of Turners Falls took a workshop about using Google, the Internet search engine. "It's important for me because I'm going to school to become an LPN and I know it's going to mean a lot of research."?
Laura Adkins took the same workshop. "It was interesting to see how they mislead you on some Web sites. I learned that I need to be really careful how I research and I really need to understand what I'm actually looking at before I take any notes from a site."?
Interspersed with the morning and afternoon workshops were campus tours, free pizza, a panel of returning students who shared their GCC experiences and answered questions and, finally, a game-show-style closing event. "You can't come out not feeling excited about being here,"? says Scarchilli-Janus
GCC has other constituencies in addition to day students, and Scarchilli-Janus is thinking about their orientation needs as well. "My goal is to focus our energies on meeting the needs of all of our incoming students, so not just a day program, but also an evening section and possibly an online section. So this is a movement for the future. We're hoping to do this again in January so that new students will feel that energy, feel that buzz of community here at GCC."?
"I'm kind of excited,"? said Melinda Klein of Dalton, "and hoping to meet new people."?
"Now I know my way around,"? said Casey Shanahan of Amherst. "I found out there's a fitness club and it's free, so that's good!"?
"I'm hoping that all new students will feel comfortable on campus,"? says Scarchilli-Janus, "and that they'll get a sense that GCC is going to be their college for a while."?
This fall, students at Greenfield Community College will be able to use the vast online resources of the GCC Library and the Internet from their laptop computers, almost anywhere on campus. The new wireless capability frees students and faculty from feeling tethered to a hard-wired, desktop computer for checking their e-mail, visiting the GCC Web site and doing research. Now they can log on using their own laptop computer in a growing number of locations in and around campus, or check out a laptop for use in the Library.
"Studying is not just located in one spot now,"? says Martha Field, dean of institutional support and advancement. "It's all over."?
Offering a wireless campus is a work in progress that started about a year ago, when the Business Club made an internet café out of their Café Academia in the East Building. "Last year,"? recalls Gretchen Watson, professor of English, "I saw students all the time sitting either alone or in groups working on their schoolwork (using their laptops)."? The college supported that initiative, eventually incorporating it into a GCC wireless system covering a much wider area.
Today, wireless capabilities are available inside and outside the East Building. In the main campus, wireless encompasses the Library, college store and vending area/café in the north end; in the south, it's available in the science studio, and the vending area on the third floor. Unlike a wired network, explains Network Manager Steve Harris, wireless spills out into adjacent areas. "So you can get it outside the building, too, in certain places, like behind the Library in the Rock Park."?
Members of the community who bring their laptops with them can visit the Library and obtain a free pass to log on for the day.
Changing the way students do research
"More and more students are coming in with their own laptop computers and asking whether we have a wireless environment,"? says Ellen Carey, co-coordinator of the Library. Carey has noticed a change in the way students accomplish their work. "The research process used to be a matter of going to the library, gathering information from books and journals, and then compiling it at your typewriter or computer. I find now that there is less of a distinction between the process of gathering information and the process of producing it in the form of a paper or presentation. Students simultaneously work on a paper or other assignment while continuing to gather information online. Having a wireless environment in the Library really facilitates that process."?
For those who do not own a laptop computer, the Library has purchased five new laptops to loan out to students for use in the Library.
Carey sees her role as librarian changing as well. "One example I can think of is taking a laptop myself and going and sitting in students' study areas and having a sort of remote reference desk,"? says Carey. "That's really a trend in the way a lot of academic libraries are thinking about access to library resources and services. It's all about going to meet the students were they are, instead of expecting the students to come to a particular place at a particular time.
"As we get more and more wireless places on campus,"? predicts Carey, "students will be able to access our resources whenever and wherever they want to.
"Certainly we still have books and libraries are still a great study space, regardless of the technology,"? continues Carey. "But I think that technology is really changing the nature of libraries so that we're thinking more and more about flexibility in terms of the types of resources that we offer and the ways in which people can access them."?
"Mobility and flexibility are the two important pieces (of wireless),"? agrees Daniel LaRose, interim associate dean for behavioral science. "We'll be setting up the (social sciences) studio this fall with 15 laptops that will be used both in the classroom, which is right next door, and in the studio. Students can bring the laptops to the table and do research, access the internet and get into the GCC Library database (from the East Building). We can also step outside and sit on the lawn in the nice weather and still have access to information. A computer lab can be anywhere now."?
Wireless means freedom for teachers too. "What's really super is that I can now pick up my laptop from my desk area and I can walk over to my conference table when I'm working with people and have access to information anywhere in my office,"? says LaRose. "I used to have to go running from my table to my desk to get what I needed."?
"It will be really useful to me,"? says Watson, "because instead of having to rely on these big heavy carts with all this equipment on them, I can take (my laptop) into a classroom, pick up the signal and do a presentation right there very easily. Plus, I'll be able to carry my computer around as I work with students."?
Over the coming year, the college will be surveying coverage, and here Harris is anticipating that students will provide important feedback. "What I'm looking for is that the people who start using it come back to us and say, 'Gee, I often sit here in the building, or there out on the lawn. I don't see it there and I really would like to.'"?
"We're moving toward a wireless environment in general,"? says Professor Watson. "There's going to be more and more wireless access throughout cities and towns, for example. So I think GCC is heading in the right direction."?
Wireless makes GCC more attractive to students, too.
"Wireless is fun,"? explains Harris. "It's pretty novel to be able to roam around campus and have streaming audio or video or a virtual connection that's with you as you walk around. Until you try it, you might not realize how free it makes you feel, kind of like what cell phones have done. It's a tool, like anything else, but it's fun, it's cool. It gives you freedom."?
Carol Christ, 10th president of Smith College, will be the featured speaker at the GCC Foundation's 38th annual meeting Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m. She will speak about "Access in Higher Education."?
The public is invited to attend the event, which will be held at Famous Bill's Restaurant on Federal Street in Greenfield. Dinner selections are prime rib au jus, baked haddock or vegetarian lasagna. The cost is $22. Please reserve your place by Sept. 13 by calling 775-1602.
Greenfield Community College | One College Drive | Greenfield, MA 01301-5129 | (413) 775-1000 (tel) | (413) 775-5129 (fax)