Link round-up: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

Something Old:
Buffalo News reports on President Obama's plan to use community colleges to improve the workforce. The report once again confirms that community colleges have been experiencing record high enrollments and hints at possible admission caps in the future if this trend continues. The article fails to mention SCCC but does cite several community colleges in NY.

Something New:

Times Union reports on the new gymnasium being built in Schenectady's Center City located on State Street across from Proctors. This new gym, belonging to the YMCA of Schenectady will also be home to our Basketball and Volleyball teams when it is finished in January.

Something Borrowed:

This holiday season the Salvation Army will use more "plastic kettles" in addition to ringing bells outside of the department stores and hoping that jolly shoppers will drop their spare change in the old kettles. These plastic kettles will take credit cards so you can borrow money from Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, to donate to the Salvation Army and pay them back latter.

Something Blue:

Rite Aid on Eastern Avenue was robbed on Friday afternoon. Police said that when one of the suspects was confronted by a sales associate because he was shoving items down his pants the suspect punched the associate in the face and fled. He was wearing blue jeans.

Liveblog from the Commons at SCCC

11:36: Well it's been over an hour and nothing too exciting has happened today, I do have to get moving on to other things. I guess that not everyday is as exciting as the last. Sometimes it's better to just be laid back and normal. I'm glad tat I didn't hear any teasing or see and fighting today. I guess I am thankful for peace and quite normal days.

11:34: Student is singing: "Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough" as she walks down the hall. Students here at SCCC love to sing

11:33: It's nice to see teachers stop their students in the hall and talk about their classes.

11:31: The Political Science Club just showed up and I feel so bad, he's sitting there holding up a flyer. I let him borrow my markers. 

11:28: It's nice to hear people talking about what their doing for the holidays. 

11:26: He added, "always remember that nothing is ever that difficult because you never know until you try.

11:24: What a nice student, the one that wrote about being thankful for SCCC.

11:21: Hey those kids are too young for college. What are they like 7 and 8?

11:19: I have another interested student who is finally going to write that he is thankful for "SCCC." This poster has been here for three days now and no one has wrote that down yet! Good for you Culinary Arts student. Good for you!

11:17: Things are starting to pick up around here. Security and maintenance are getting another table ready. I guess the Political Science Club is planning on having an event down here too. They are probably selling raffle tickets.

11:15: F-in this and F-in that. I'll never understand that aspect of culture. Wow, this girl just did a Thanksgiving dance!

11:14: This guy keeps walking back and forth on the cell phone. It wouldn't be so bad except that his boots aren't tied up and are making the annoying clunking noise as he walks back and forth, back and forth. To add to his loud annoying shoes, he's cursing like crazy and talking about bailing friends out of jail loud enough so that everyone is forced to hear his conversation.

11:11: This guy behind me is using the payphone. I didn't know that people still did that. Yesterday, this girl was on it for almost an hour. Today, this guy was really quick. I guess all college students do not have cell phones.

11:09: Another one that loves to color. I should have made her sign my poster board.

11:07: A lot of guys are wearing T-shirts today. It's kind of funny how T-shirts in cold weather is such a guy thing.

11:05: Those doors between Stockade and Elston Hall are quite squeaky. Time for some WD-40.

11:03: We are half way through out liveblog experience and all I've got so far are cupcakes, carolers, and Dave. Another student just complained about have class today for the entire time. I guess she thought that because it is the day before Thanksgiving that the teacher would give them a break. What's funny about the whole thing is that she's been a student here for a couple of years. She should know how we role at SCCC. We don't take days off.

10:59: It is pretty hard to liveblog and talk to students at the same time. A student just picked up a turkey to color and talked to me about caroling for our Christmas event. I am so excited.

10:56: I got a student to come sign my poster. She's thankful for her wonderful lounges (aka: People in the commons).

10:54: Why don't any of these students work on school work or read while they have time in between classes. I think one guy actually has some school work out. The rest of the students are playing music and games, or making out. Yes, the students here love to make out with each other in the Commons. Its like the back stairwell in high school.

10:49: The administrators are planning of transforming this space and making to more sectioned off, including a place for laptops, a pool table, comfy chairs and work stations.

10:47: This guy just walked by in a tank top. Yes it is a little warmer today than most, but it's still November. My dad wears T-shirts outside in this weather too though. 

10:45: And out the door he goes with a group of four girls now. They must all be friends.

10:43: It figures that today would be so uneventful... Wait a minute. I know that guy, that's David, what is he doing with those girls. He's got two kids at home. He just saw me, and boy did he looked shocked.

10:40: People keep walking by my table. They look interested but the also look terrified, like their afraid to stop because I might ask them to do something terrible.

10:37: OMG that girl just ate a cupcake. I hope that she's not going to eat that other one in her hand too! Listen to me I am insanely jealous of those girls eating their cupcakes.

10:35: The group of students who might be singing Christmas Carols for SAB next week are passing out cupcakes. It's too bad I started my diet two days ago; they look yummy.

10:32: There's not too much going on this morning here in the Commons. I think that a lot of students must be getting ready for Thanksgiving.

10:30: I made it. Better late than not at all-- that's what they say.

ok so my computer is warming up for a live blog stay tuned. k.moore reporting fom her cell at the commons

Monday: Day 1 of Commons invasion

So, yesterday was the first day of my three day post-up in the Commons, and it showed me several sides of SCCC that I hadn't before taken the time to notice.

I setup shop not knowing how exactly I was going to go about this "Thanksgiving-SAB promoting-iPod-Nano-raffleing event." But I decided to go with the flow.

First I layed out the Thanksgiving themed table cloth, a pumpkin, some quarter flyers with SAB meeting times and location, colouring handouts with pilgrim turkeys, little Indian boys with bowls... Let me spare you the discription and today I will take a picture and you can just see the display for yourself.

Anyway, I noticed that once some of students saw the raffel tickets, they would imediately approach the table to find out what was going on. I asked them what they were thankful for. The most popular responses were:

1) Everything
2) Life
3) Friends and Family

If they added something that they were thankful for, I would give them a raffle ticket for participating in an SAB event. I told them that each SAB event that they participated in would earn them another chance at winning the iPod Nano. I gave them the quarter flyer and they would put it in their pocket, sign the poster board, and fill out the raffle ticket.

When students responded with a duplicate response for our "We Are Thankful For..." poster, I would ask them to think a little more and be more specific.
One of the students in his chef uniform told me that he was thankful for life. I told him yes, we have that here and pointed to where it was written. "Is there anything else that you can think of that you are thankful for?" I asked.
He told me that he had almost died and that was why he was really thankful for life. I asked him what happened and he told me about how he went down a steep hill on his mountain bike, hit a parked car, and had to go to the hospital. I asked him what saved him, and his reply: "My strong ass head."
And, there you have it. "My Strong (minus the ass part) head" was added to our posterboard.


We have a meeting today, I wonder if any new students will show up. Last week we had none. And to make matters worse and rub it in a little more, there was another club in our meeting room. A club with about 40 members.

There are a couple of clubs on campus that can draw in big groups of students. I assume that this is because they are geared towards distinctive populations. Once you can identify with a social group, you are more apt to actively participate. I know this to be true because I am currently researching how these social groups work on the Web. Studies have proven that joining these groups actually builds self-concept.

Speaking of self-concept. While I observed the comings and goings of students in between their classes, I overheard a horrible thing. I really wanted shake this girl and find out what the hell her problem was. She was teasing a disabled student about that student's disability. I only caught the end of what she was saying, but it was obvious that her intentions were not helpful but rather, hurtful.

These are college students! This is not high school anymore. How the hell can someone be so childish and mean.

I was angry.

I think that I could talk more about some of the things that I saw and heard yesterday, but I have got to get back downstairs for Day 2 of my Commons Invasions"

A devistating week in Schenectady: link round-up

UGG! I missed the Schenectady Holiday Parade this year because I was too busy doing school work.


It was hard to find more jolly happy souls in Schenectady this week.

One Schenectady woman was arrested for neglecting to provide needed care for her puppy. Sadly, this happens to a lot of animals in the city. I've seen owners toss their kittens out on the street because they couldn't afford to get them fixed. It's really sad.

You know what else is sad? A man burning to death in a truck in Delanson. I wonder why he couldn't get out.

On a more positive note, it looks like you still have one more chance to get the H1N1 vaccine if you missed the clinic on Friday. But, the fact that this flu is so rampid that you have to get vaccinated for it is not very comforting.

I guess that's it for happy news in Schenectady for the week. The rest seems to be robbery after robbery and even a rape conviction.

What is this world coming to?