Monday, October 26, 2009

October 26-30th Events

All week long: Student Volunteer Organization (SVO) & SOC 127 will be collecting donations for several local agencies. For more information contact:

Renee Adamany
Assistant Professor
(518) 381-1298
adamanrt@sunysccc.edu
 
Tuesday: Spanish Club's Halloween Fiesta Latina during the 11:30 - 12:30 college hour.

Featuring:

-Free food, music and dance.

-The Mayan Hands who will be here with crafts to purchase.

Thursday: Student Activities Board (SAB) will be hosting Halloween Haunting Hour
 
Featuring:
 
-Face Painting
 
-Candy
 
-Spooky music
 
-Costume contest and prizes
 
As always student who attend and participate in the SAB events will be entered in a raffle to win and iPod Nano at the end of the semester


If you would like you event posted on this blog email me at moorekm@sunysccc.edu

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Five most popular Lunches from Chartwells

The cook gave me this response...




5. Western Burger

4. Meatball Sub


3. Ruben

2. Taco Salad

And the best item on the lunch menu is.......


The Chartwells World Famous Chicken Wrap

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

To the hardworking, cheerful, and friendly maintenance staff at SCCC:

I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for opening the doors when you see me walking towards them with: my three bags, one jam packed full of books on my back and two over my shoulder, and a cup of coffee in my hand, in the morning on my way into work.

Thank you for always stopping to ask me how my weekend was and how my family is doing.

Thank you for smiling and saying, "Hello." when we pass in the hallways throughout the day.

Thank you for working so hard to my our school, offices, and classrooms so neat and tidy.

I can see the benefits of your daily labor. It means so much more than just a clean floor or window. Your work models pride and efficiency. You prepare and present our structure, our foundation.

And, You can really turn my day around with your simple, yet, thoughtful gestures that you do with the utmost sincerity.

Sincerely,
K. Moore

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Bad parking

It's no secret that the parking at SCCC is a problem for students.

However, you have less to complain about than other local schools. Most colleges charge for a parking space. I would say, on average, about $40 a year, but don't quote me on that figure. And, don't think that because they pay this fee that they can find parking spots in the same vicinity as their classes.

Last semester at St. Rose, I went the cheap route: I didn't buy a parking permit and tried my luck parking on Western and Madison Avenues.

There were occasions when I would be running late to class, and this seemingly small dilemma quickly became a disaster. Instead of being five minutes late, I was walking into class fifteen minutes late because I had spent the last ten minutes circling the school for a parking spot. Once I had finally parked the car, I had to walk a couple of blocks to my class which made me even later.

Then there was the first week of school.

I didn't read the signs and parked on the wrong side of the street on the wrong day of the week. A little something often referred to as alternate parking. The ticket cost me more than a parking permit for the entire semester would have.

So, this semester I bought a permit, and on my first day with access to the student lot, I was feeling good. I didn't have to wait for all the cars on Western to pass me before I could begin to parallel park in some tight space.

But, instead of finding myself at peace with the parking lot, I ended up ten times more frustrated. There was absolutely, positively, no parking anywhere. I circled the lot once or twice, and then stalked some girl walking to her class for her parking spot.

Most of this is old news. It's week seven already and I have adapted to my Fall 09 routine. But, what does any of this have to do with the parking at SCCC?

Well, let me tell you: students here at SCCC get to park for free- it's a privilege. Imagine paying $40 to park in this same parking lot with the same parking issues. When you feel like complaining about it, just zip your lips. Grin. And, bear it. At least it doesn't cost you anything.

But, now I turn to my case in point: just because parking is free, it doesn't give you the right to park like a jerk.

The past two days, I've come to work and pulled into the next available spot in my favorite parking zone.  Each morning, I dodge the morning commuters zipping off the highway onto Washington Ave on their way to work in Schenectady or Scotia.

These busy, often times negligent, drivers, however, are not my problem. I have been safely reaching the building just about every day for the last 4 years.

However,  I am losing my patience with another driver. For two days in a row, I have had to park at an angle because of this lazy driver who sloppily parked in the spot next to mine. Two mornings in a row, same reddish car, same parking spot, and same damn messed up parking job.

Come on, what is the matter with you? Can't you see the two painted-white lines?



I have been parking here a lot longer than you have, and I demand some respect.

I believe that I have OCD when it comes to parking spots. I get furious when anyone parks in "my spot," even though the spaces are available on a first come first serve basis.

Now, this afternoon when I left work, the reddish car was gone: most of the cars parked there this morning had left. And, there was my car, all alone, looking like I had been the orginator of horrible parking.

It wasn't my fault. Shame on you dirty reddish car!

If the car is there again tomorrow, maybe I'll leave an anonymous note:

Monday, October 19, 2009

Link round up weekend: NYC

I don't know what you did this weekend, but I sure had a blast! Lately, I have been extremely busy with work, family, and school, but this weekend I gave myself a break and did something fun.


Truthfully, I didn't treat myself to a weekend of fun because I really wanted to. In fact, I kind of had to go. The trip was optional for students in ENG 498, but since Baby Brother hasn't seen his Abuelo and Abulea in such a long time (they live in NY), it was mandatory that we make the trip to NY.


The Yankees were playing the second round of the playoffs in the Bronx this weekend so the D train was packed!


Unfortunately, we didn't have tickets to the game, but I did have a metrocard and plans with my friends from Saint Rose to meet up at MoMA.



Saturday was also the Spanish Club's annual trip to NYC. I'm not sure what they had planned, but they always find fun things to do when they visit NY.


Well, the fun and games are over and it's back to work.

I've got a lot to catch up on. Wish me luck!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Midterm Conferences

It's that time of the year again.  

Mid-semester grades are being configured. This is a friendly reminder to all students to stop in and visit with your instructors. If you haven't been doing well in your classes, now is the time to kick it up a notch. See what you need to do in order to get the grade that you expect.

As I mentioned before, meeting with your teacher is a great way to show that you are conscientious about your work and want to succeed in college. Teachers notice students who work hard to succeed and are more willing to work with you.

Conferencing is proven to be an effective tool in education.
Teachers-- there's a lot of information out there on the web about effective ways to conference with your students. Encourage students to stop by your office. Be sure to remind them where it's located and when your office hours are.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The AIDS Memorial Quilt at SCCC




Yesterday, SCCC displayed The AIDS Memorial Quilt on campus for the second year in a row.

When you see the quilt in person, it is an experience like no other.

You can feel the sense of loss and share in the joyful memories of their lost loved ones which are poured onto each carefully worked and detailed patch of quilt. People form all walks of life are remembered and celebrated in this piece. Each square is different: some have photographs and messages, and others have drawings and poems. But, each square has in common the deep love for a special person lost to AIDS.


The quilt is the largest ongoing art project in the world. Sections of the quilt travel around the world and are used as preventative measures for new HIV infections.


If you ever get the chance to see The AIDS Memorial Quilt in your area, definitely go and witness the impact that this disease has had on so many individuals, friends, and families.


December 1st is World AIDS Day. The Quilt will be on display in New York that day.

Brooklyn, NY
12/1/2009 - 12/4/2009
Host: Edward R. Murrow High School
Display Site: Edward R. Murrow High School
Display Site Address: 1600 Avenue L
Number of Blocks: 5
Contact: Sally Hipscher
Email: FAMHIP@aol.com

Kingston, NY
12/1/2009 - 12/6/2009
Host: Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, Inc
Display Site: Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center
Display Site Address: 300 Wall Street
Number of Blocks: 2
Contact: Vanessa Shelmandine
Email: programs@lgbtqcenter.org


A poem by Mark Doty

 


The intact facade's now almost black
in the rain; all day they've torn at the back
of the building, "the oldest concrete structure
in New England," the newspaper said. By afternoon,
when the backhoe claw appears above
three stories of columns and cornices,

the crowd beneath their massed umbrellas cheer.
Suddenly the stairs seem to climb down themselves,
atomized plaster billowing: dust of 1907's
rooming house, this year's bake shop and florist's,
the ghosts of their signs faint above the windows
lined, last week, with loaves and blooms.

We love disasters that have nothing to do
with us: the metal scoop seems shy, tentative,
a Japanese monster tilting its yellow head
and considering what to topple next. It's a weekday,
and those of us with the leisure to watch
are out of work, unemployable or academics,

joined by a thirst for watching something fall.
All summer, at loose ends, I've read biographies,
Wilde and Robert Lowell, and fallen asleep
over a fallen hero lurching down a Paris boulevard,
talking his way to or a drink,
unable to forget the vain and stupid boy

he allowed to ruin him. And I dreamed
I was Lowell, in a manic flight of failing
and ruthless energy, and understood
how wrong I was with a passionate exactitude
which had to be like his. A month ago,
at Saint-Gauden's house, we ran from a startling downpour

into coincidence: under a loggia built
for performances on the lawn
hulked Shaw's splendid
in its plaster maquette, the ramrod-straight colonel
high above his black troops. We crouched on wet gravel
and waited out the squall; the hieratic woman

-- a wingless angel? -- floating horizontally
above the soldiers, her robe billowing like plaster dust,
seemed so far above us, another century's
allegorical decor, an afterthought
who'd never descend to the purely physical
soldiers, the nearly breathing bronze ranks crushed

into a terrible compression of perspective,
as if the world hurried them into the ditch.
"The unreadable," Wilde said, "is what occurs."
And when the brutish metal rears
above the wall of unglazed windows --
where, in a week, the kids will skateboard

in their lovely loops and spray
their indecipherable ideograms
across the parking lot
-- the single standing wall
seems Roman, momentarily, an aqueduct,
all that's left of something difficult
to understand now, something Oscar

and Bosie might have posed before, for a photograph.
Aqueducts and angels, here on Main,
seem merely souvenirs; the gaps
where the windows opened once
into transients' rooms are pure sky.
It's strange how much more beautiful

the sky is to us when it's framed
by these columned openings someone meant us
to take for stone. The enormous, articulate shovel
nudges the highest row of moldings
and the whole thing wavers as though we'd dreamed it,
our black classic, and it topples all at once.

Mark Doty



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Student Activities Board (SAB)


Today the SAB will be holding its first mass meeting in Elston 334 from 11:30-12:20.
At the meeting we will be electing officers to serve as the organization's student leaders.
In an effort to encourage student participation in campus events we will be holding an end of the semester raffle. Each event that the student attends or helps sponsor in will be rewarded with a raffle ticket. Write your name and number on the back of the ticket and your name could be drawn at the end of the semester to win a iPod nano.
GOOD LUCK-- You gotta be in it to win it!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Columbus celebration or not so much?


It's Monday, week 6, here at SCCC, and I know what you're probably thinking, "We're the only school that's open on Columbus Day."

Well, you're probably right. Most schools in the area are off from school today. If you have children, they're definitely home. I never understood why a community college, which has many nontraditional students, ages twenty-four and up, many of whom have children, didn't give its students holiday's like Columbus Day off.

When I was a student at SCCC, I dreaded the College's "non-holidays". The Schenectady City School District gets, on average, about four days off from school a month. That means that almost 4 days out of the month I had to struggle to find childcare and dip into my savings to pay for it. Many of their days off are due to staff meetings and conferences- things inapplicable to a universal calendar.
On the other hand, all of our calendars designate Columbus Day as a holiday, and I think that SCCC should recognize this. St. Rose does. HVCC does.  SUNY Albany students don't have to go to classes on Yom Kippur- yet another holiday that is recognized by the Schenectady City School District.

If we could organize our school's schedule to include some of these days off and still meet the minimum number of hours required to be an accredited school, SCCC could make the lives of many of its students much easier.

Perhaps our attendance today means much more than we realize.

There are conflicting beliefs and interpretations about our national hero, Mr. Christopher Columbus. Some believe that Columbus discovered America in 1492. And, that's why today we celebrate his designated holiday.

However, there is another school of thought that is often omitted from our elementary school books. Some believe that Columbus's actions were cruel including: his use of slavery and violence against the American Indians, forceful projection of Christianity, and the transmission of diseases that would have lasting effects on the native population.

Are SCCC and other institutions that do not honor Columbus Day as a holiday suggesting that we believe that we should not honor Christopher Columbus as a American hero?

The Rated G version of Christopher Columbus
This morning, I asked my five year old if he knew why he had the day off from school on a Monday.

 "No," he said.

"It's Columbus Day. Do you know who Columbus was?"

He was anxious to answer, "Yes, he came to our island on a boat."

Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did.

I informed my five-year-old, little boy that, "When he came here he wanted to build houses for people to live in, and so, all of the Indians who used to live in the forests had to leave."

"Did they die?" he asked me. Big Brother often worries about death.

"No. Wait, yes, some of them died from diseases. Those men on the boats didn't bring their toothbrushes and use the soap when they took their showers, and so, they were full of germs when they landed in America. The Indians weren't used to all these germs and some of them got sick and died. The others, they moved to little communities away from the European men who were busy building house and taking over the forests."

The moral of this story: Brush your teeth and wash up with soap!

For those of you who do have today off, Say Schenectady has a list of things to do and celebrate the holiday.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Fall 2009 Artists

President Bullock Picks his favorite pumpkin!


Students at SCCC decorated pumpkins to celebrate Fall 2009


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Administrators on "time out"

Times Union news reporter on education, Scott Waldman, was running a little late to his presentation in my blogging class on Tuesday.

He was late because he need to get the details out about his breaking story: Albany's Achievement Academy Charter School had taped 2 of its teachers without their knowledge.

First I thought: Wow! And, I was among one of the first two know about it.

Then I realized, that the story was only particularly interesting to me and a handful of my classmates because we plan on being teachers someday and could relate on a professional level. Furthermore, I have a child in elementary school: so, issues like this interest me.

But, think about it.....

How would you feel if you were secretly video taped at your job? Any job? Wouldn't you feel violated? Angry?

God, knows I would. I would be mortified if I looked over my desk and saw a little red blinking light coming from the stacked boxes of Student Activities Board seasonal decorations in my office.

OMG did that camera just catch me pulling up my pantyhose?

Would I quite my job because of it? Maybe.

Maybe, I would just get revenge. I might to do something vile to the camera and tape, but then again, if I did this, I wouldn't have any proof that my rights had been violated. Then those pervasive employers of mine (in a fictitious world, my real employers would never record me, the students are much more interesting to watch) could just deny that the cameras ever existed.

Okay, this senerio has gone a little too far into a world of make-believe. But, seriously, what the Achievement Academy did to their teachers & STUDENTS is wrong. It's easy to forget that these student's are victims too. My mommy side would be furious that 1) they did this to my child and his teacher without consent, 2) they stirred up an enormous issue for the school and made learning and attending school a problem for all of their students.

How many reporters and administrative employees for the school and the district will be visible present on school grounds while this story is investigated?

How are students supposed to remain focused in the classroom when there's so much controversy around them?

Can the school compensate for their actions? And, what is being done for those students who have to wait for a new teacher to take over 5-6 weeks into the school year?

As college students, employees, and citizens of a community, our actions are models to young children. Children are effected by our decisions everyday.

What kind of messages are we, as professionals, giving our children?

Monday, October 5, 2009

We want to know what moves you

What can we do to get your attention? As co-advisor of the Student Activities Board, I've just gotta know what we have to do to move you. Student participation in campus activities is weak, to say the least, and I just don't understand why. On any given Tuesday or Thursday, I can gaze out the windows of the Terrace or SGA office to the Commons and see many of you sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

Occasionally, there is that table of students with their books spread out and obvious good intentions. But, come on now, how much studying are you actually doing? How much of your conversation is gossip about your crazy English teacher that is always going off on tangents that have nothing to do with anything you've read? How many of you are complaining about that annoying girl that sits in the front of the class and won't quit asking inappropriate and irrelevant questions or feels the need to share her entire life story? What is really going on during your so-called study sessions in the noisy Commons?

Why not enjoy your free time and learn something new? My guess is that you've come to college with the intention of leaving someday having acquired skills and knowledge that make you a competitive prospect for employers.

Joining clubs/organizations, or just participating in Campus events can give you that competitive edge. Whether you are learning social skills from mingling with other students, attending a lecture on the environment, or study circle on racism, there's a lot to learn.

Okay, if I haven't sold it to you yet, just marinate in this...

We've got money to spend!
(thanks to your student activity fee)

We want you to get the most bang for your buck.
(the economy is very bad these days)

You can even spend it as you wish. Joining a club/organization gives you the power to share your own interests with the rest of the College. And the best part, it looks good on a resume.

Attend, or better yet, help plan, a concert, a comedy show, a donut eating contest, an Open Mic night, whatever, and enjoy your college experience. It's not everywhere you go that you can get all of this entertainment for just $54 a semester.

I hope that my message has reached some of you and I look forward to seeing more of you at these events. You're only young once. And if you're old, you deserve a little "me time" away from the family and responsibilities. Live it up!

Sanitizer everywhere

Thank You President Bullock!

H1N1 is out and about, hitting local schools. I haven't heard of any cases here at SCCC, but that doesn't mean that we are in the clear. Unfortunately, the regular flu season is just beginning and we may come into contact with the H1N1 at anytime (it appears to be in season year-round).

But, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know. It's on the news just about every 9 minutes

My point, therefore, is not to give you a news report but, to recognize the staff who have been attentive to this infectious germ meandering around the Capital District. They have purchased and placed hand sanitizer throughout the school. It is no longer just for the secretary's/employee's use, but rather all students are encouraged to participate in this "Antibacterial Movement".

Keep yourself safe!
-If you can't clean/disinfect your work station before use, wash your hands immediately after, especially when using a computer. There are hand sanitizing stations in the Computer Lab and in most of the common areas of the College. They are there for your use; so, use them. If their empty let security or maintenance know.

-There are signs posted all over the College in restrooms and common areas reminding everyone to cover their face when you cough, sneeze, etc. These are helpful reminders-- OBEY them. People around you will be glad that you did.

-Stay Home if you are sick. I know, I hate to miss school, work, or any of my responsibilities; however, I just got over a cold myself and stayed home. I was able to get better faster and my classmates and co-workers were glad in didn't share my germs with them.

Another thing, people might look at you like you've got the plague if they see that you are sick around them. I have seen teachers basically kick their students out of class for being ill. If you don't feel well, spare yourself the embarrassment and stay home.