Top Ten

The week before the semester begins is busy time for both students as well as staff and faculty. In particular, the Admission and Financial Aid offices field an enormous number of phone calls, emails, and walk-in traffic.

Occasionally, there comes a phone call that is truly worth celebrating. Lori Sprague in Admissions has kept track of a few of the most entertaining bits and I share them (with permission) secure in the knowledge that at least one will bring a smile to your face.

Yes, they all actually happened.

1. Do you have degrees in Bounty Hunting or do I have to take bull***t classes first?
2. You are not doing what I want, you need to be more of an active listener.
3. I’d like to make a hair appointment.  I don’t understand, you do massages and clean teeth, why don’t you do hair?  That doesn’t make any sense.
4. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.  I’m going to take a deep breath, I’m going to hang up the phone, and I’m going to call back and hope that I get someone different.
5. Do you know milliliters?  I need to convert milliliters to ounces.  Can you tell me how to do that?
6. I’d like to order a transcript, but I need to tell you what classes I want on it before you transfer it to the U of I.
7. We need toilet paper out here!  I’m out in the S building and we are completely out of toilet paper!
8. I’m...like...a U of I student...
9. Hi, can you tell me where the parties are?  I heard you have a lot of parties down there and I need to know where they are.
10. I’d like to have my car worked on, can I make an appointment with you?

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Have a....

...Merry Christmas 
and/or 

a Contented Feast of the Immaculate Conception 


or Happy Hanukkah 


or Joyous Kwanzaa 


or a Kickn' "Tet" 


or a Blissful Bodhi Day 


or a Cheerful Maunajiyaras 


or Wonderful Festival of Lights


or a Blessed Ramadan 


or a Good Winter Solstice 


and/or a Joyful Canadian Boxing Day 


and a Festive Festivus


and a Happy New Year! 

Above all, be safe!

A poem by Board of Trustee member, Linden Warfel:

                   Family, Parkland Style

 

It came out again

at the annual holiday party

"Parkland is really a family'

said a long time Parkland person.

 

I looked around the room

seeing folks engaged with one another

smiles, laughter, concern

hand shakes and hugs

and even a few kisses on cheeks

respecting one another

enjoying being with one another

 

The common tasks

doing of them

does create some bonds

but there is another level

when the task involves

'investing in people,

and things eternal.' 

 

In gifting of one's best

doing it again and again

focused on students

who volunteer themselves

the giving to another

benefits all involved

 

Nested in there

the bond that forms

creates a family

and that's where Parkland lives

 

So we know our role and play it

receiving awards along the way

not so much because we seek them

but more that others see us

gain from us

want to be like us

 

Holiday parties

graduations

so few times, really,

we pause to capture, share, feelings,

of respect, appreciation, being,

then hurry on into tomorrows

 

 

Selah, Lin 12/2011                 

Thanks...

As the Combined Charities Campaign for this year comes to a close, I would like to thank you all so much for making this a very successful campaign.

You made a total of $43,201.50 in donations. That's up 13% in dollars over last year and 30% of the number of full-time employees contributed to the campaign.

Of course, we owe a special thanks to Molly Murphy and the team of folks that helped make the Campaign successful. Your work is most appreciated.

Oftentimes, our students are the beneficiaries of your generosity, as the agencies and services supported particularly through the United Way continue their respective missions with an infusion of funds.

I hope you each have an enjoyable and relaxing holiday season. My best to you.

Tom

October 2011 Construction Update

Construction Update – October  2011

  Applied Technology Center (ATC) – This new construction is approximately 64,000 SF and is being partially funded by the State of Illinois through the Capital Development Board. The facility will house the comprehensive Automotive Programs, Ford Asset, Collision Repair, Industrial Technology, and Welding.  As of October 12, 2011, the project is 50% complete.    Work on interior masonry walls continues, mechanical systems are beginning to be installed, and concrete floor are currently being poured.  The intent is to have the facility ready for classes in fall 2012.

   

Front Entryway

Welding Lab Area North Compound Area

Automotive Lab Area

  Wing Remodeling –The X Wing  2^nd and 3^rd floors have new carpet and stair treads installed. Trim work and remodeling are continuing.

   

3^rd Floor X Wing Study Area

   2^nd Floor X Wing Study Area

  Student Services Center – This project is approximately 96,000 SF of new space that will house all student service functions, including additional student lounge and food service space.   Architects Perkins and Will have completed the design and construction documents.  The project should be released for bids in mid November with bids being received by the Capital Development Board on December 15.   Construction should begin in early spring 2012 pending Board approval.  The intent is to have the facility completed in fall of 2013 or spring of 2014.

  Fitness Center – This project is an addition to the existing Dodds Athletic Center.  The completion of this project would give the College a new "state of the art" athletic facility with space for Kinesiology, dance and aerobics, strength training, an indoor walking track, new locker rooms and team rooms, and coach’s offices.  Included in this project would be the remodeling of the lower level of the gymnasium. The first phase of construction is nearing completion with remodeling of the locker rooms and team rooms.  The new addition site work is on schedule with the walls and floor completed.  Next items will be structural steel erection and work on the new north entryway.   Completion of the project is scheduled for August of 2012.

  Main Locker Room

 Team Locker Room

 Pouring Concrete Fitness Floor

Roof Repair Phase II- The second phase of roof repair and replacement was started on August 29^th.  Work on the Dodds Athletic Center, the L Wing, and the M Wing are underway. New metal roof panels are being installed on sloped roof areas, and single ply rubber roofing is being installed on all flat roof areas.  The contractor intends to have the majority of roofing completed prior to December 1, 2011.

 Roof Valley Detail

 Athletic Center Roofing

What's wrong with Academics?

I happen to be watching Fox News at 11:20pm on Monday, August 29th, 2011.

Correspondents are discussing the new Obama appointment of Alan B. Krueger as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).

Alan is the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

In addition, he has published widely on the economics of education, unemployment, labor demand, income distribution, social insurance, labor market regulation, terrorism and environmental economics. Since 1987 he has held a joint appointment in the Economics Department and Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

He is the founding Director of the Princeton University Survey Research Center. He is the author of What Makes A Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism and Education Matters: A Selection of Essays on Education, and co-author of Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage, and co-author of Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies? He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Russell Sage Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and the American Institutes for Research, as well as a member of the editorial board of Science (2001-09), editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (1996-2002) and co-editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association (2003-05).

Professor Krueger served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2009-10. In 1994-95 he served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.

He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association (2005-07) and International Economic Association, and Chief Economist for the National Council on Economic Education (2003-09). He was named a Sloan Fellow in Economics in 1992 and an NBER Olin Fellow in 1989-90. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1996 and a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists in 2005. He was awarded the Kershaw Prize by the Association for Public Policy and Management in 1997 and Mahalanobis Memorial Medal by the Indian Econometric Society in 2001. In 2002 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2003 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics with David Card in 2006. From 2000 to 2006 he was a regular contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in the New York Times. He received a B.S. degree (with honors) from Cornell University's School of Industrial & Labor Relations in 1983, an A.M. in Economics from Harvard University in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987.

Yet all the pundits are talking about is the fact that ANOTHER ACADEMIC has been appointed to an influential post.  What, may I ask is wrong with appointing a person that has devoted his life to studying economics at this level to such a post. What would make people happy? Why are academics so unqualified for such positions?

Baffled...

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Be the ball.

A while back, I wrote a post about happiness. 

Back then I asked, ”If you were to consider all the things in your life (relationships, work, socioeconomics, et cetera) as a whole, how happy would you say you are on a scale of one to ten, with one being the least happy and ten being the most?”

I was not surprised (more like glad) to read in the article below that, while not otherwise impossible, we tend to be happier when those around us are also happy.

But all is not necessarily well.
As a nation, it seems that we've grown sadder and more anxious during these times of recession and debt ceiling limitations, even amidst the continued airing of Jersey Shore.

At the same time, studies say severe mental illness is more common among college students than it was a decade ago, with most young people seeking treatment for depression and anxiety. A study presented at the American Psychological Association found that the number of students on psychiatric medicines increased more than 10% over the last 10 years.

According to The Happiness Project, there are 10 myths about happiness (each “myth” is clickable, if you so desire):

No. 1: Happy people are annoying and stupid.

No. 2: Nothing changes a person’s happiness level much.

No. 3: Venting anger relieves it.

No. 4: You’ll be happier if you insist on “the best.”

No. 5: A “treat” will cheer you up.

No. 6: Money can’t buy happiness.

No. 7: Doing “random acts of kindness” brings happiness.

No. 8: You’ll be happy as soon as you…

No. 9: Spending some time alone will make you feel better.

No. 10: It’s selfish to try to be happier.

Perhaps the most interesting advice I found came from a Facebook page: 

Don't go with the flow. Be the flow.

Very zen. reminds me of this:

 Here is the article.

Researchers look for ingredients of happiness around the world

Posted on 6/29/2011 and by Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that all humans seek to fulfill a hierarchy of needs, which he represented with a pyramid. The pyramid’s base, which he believed must come first, signified basic needs (for food, sleep and sex, for example). Safety and security came next, in Maslow’s view, then love and belonging, then esteem and, finally, at the pyramid’s peak, a quality he called “self-actualization.” Maslow wrote that people who have these needs fulfilled should be happier than those who don’t.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois put Maslow’s ideas to the test with data from 123 countries representing every major region of the world.

“Anyone who has ever completed a psychology class has heard of Abraham Maslow and his theory of needs,” said University of Illinois professor emeritus of psychology Ed Diener, who led the study. “But the nagging question has always been: Where is the proof? Students learn the theory, but scientific research backing this theory is rarely mentioned.”

The researchers turned to the Gallup World Poll, which conducted surveys in 155 countries from 2005 to 2010, and included questions about money, food, shelter, safety, social support, feeling respected, being self-directed, having a sense of mastery, and the experience of positive or negative emotions. Diener, a senior scientist for the Gallup Organization, helped design the survey.

The researchers found that fulfillment of a diversity of needs, as defined by Maslow, do appear to be universal and important to individual happiness. But the order in which “higher” and “lower” needs are met has little bearing on how much they contribute to life satisfaction and enjoyment, Diener said.

They also found that the fulfillment of more basic needs – for money, food or shelter, for example – was more closely linked to a positive life evaluation, the way an individual ranked his or her life on a scale from worst to best. The satisfaction of higher needs – for social support, respect, autonomy or mastery – was “more strongly related to enjoying life – having more positive feelings and less negative feelings,” Diener said.

An important finding, Diener said, is that the research indicated that people have higher life evaluations when others in society also have their needs fulfilled.

“Thus life satisfaction is not just an individual affair, but depends substantially also on the quality of life of one’s fellow citizens,” he said.

“Our findings suggest that Maslow’s theory is largely correct. In cultures all over the world the fulfillment of his proposed needs correlates with happiness,” Diener said. “However, an important departure from Maslow’s theory is that we found that a person can report having good social relationships and self-actualization even if their basic needs and safety needs are not completely fulfilled.”

“Another revision of his theory is that we found that different needs produce different types of well-being,” Diener said.

Willa Cather: “One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them…”

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Money, Politics, and Aviation

It seems that Parkland College has been in the news quite a bit over the past two weeks. First, the state released $24.6MM in capital funds (actually, it was $22.6MM as we have received $2MM a few months back) toward the construction of the Applied Technology Center and the Student Services Center.

As you likely know already, these two structures have been in the works for decades, working their way up the list of state-supported projects for many years, and then just as they made it to the top of the list, no capital projects were approved for another twelve years.

The result is that we are now able to begin looking at projects that were included in Phase III of our 2007 plan; Art and Theater expansions, biology lab renovations, and a handful of smaller but still significant other projects.

Staging and ordering the construction projects (who and what needs to be where and when so as not to conflict, diminish services, or interfere with our daily operations and class schedules) is no small task.

On the heels of this good news came a visit from Lt. Governor Sheila Simon. She visited Parkland College to learn how changes in freshmen orientation (First Year Experience) and academic support (Center for Academic Success) help more of our students earn degrees and certificates.

Deans Marietta Turner and Pam Lau showcased our completion and retention initiative, First Year Experience (FYE), an “intrusive” and centralized advising program which interacts with first-time, degree-seeking students from the time they submit an application throughout their first year at Parkland.

Simon announced earlier this year that Illinois leaders want to increase the proportion of working-age adults with college degrees or certificates to 60 percent, from 41 percent, by 2025. As the Governor’s point person on education reform, she is touring the state’s 48 community colleges to see completion efforts at each campus, while also compiling ideas to overcome barriers to the state goal.

As part of FYE, students are required to attend an on-campus orientation prior to the start of school and are encouraged to access websites and how-to videos for additional information about financial aid, academic advising and placement tests. The students continue to receive developmental guidance, including mandatory pre-registration meetings with an academic advisor, until they earn 30 credit hours.

The Lt. Governor spent much of her tour in the Center for Academic Success, hearing about our very positive results since its unveiling five years ago.

Students who visit the CAS five times or more pass developmental math classes at a consistently higher rate than those who did not use the center. In spring 2011, the average pass rate for students in Math 094 was 46 percent. For students visiting the CAS five or more times, the pass rate was 82 percent.

The visit concluded across the hall in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, where an number of faculty, staff, and administrators showcased initiatives, programs, and services that assist students throughout their college careers, from dual credit to business and industry partnerships, to name a very few.

My thanks to each of you that participated in, set-up, or planned the event. It was a wonderful showcase of the work that happens here everyday.

Finally, today was a little bit unusual in terms of media attention. You may have noticed that the News Gazette headline today featured a story about potential Parkland interest in the Institute for Aviation at UIUC.

Tomorrow, the University Trustees are scheduled to consider the closure of the 65 year-old Institute. One of the potential outcomes of this action may lead to a role for Parkland College.

Across the country, there are many community colleges that operate flight schools (leading to both private pilot and commercial pilot licenses) as well as related programs in aviation maintenance, airport operations, and the like.

My point is that there are community college models to guide consideration.

If  (and I stress the word “if”) the U of I Trustees vote to close the institute, and if the University decides to engage us in the conversation, we are ready to listen and evaluate the opportunity.

Our intention would be to evaluate this program(s) as we do any other – assessing the enrollment potential, the job market, and financial viability.

Of course, my postings inevitably contain construction picture and progress reports, so this one won’t be any different.

You can get a live look at both the Applied Technology Center and Fitness Center construction sites at anytime (even on your smart phone) by going to http://livecams.parkland.edu.

Construction Update – July 2011

Applied Technology Center (ATC) – This new construction is approximately 64,000 SF and is being partially funded by the State of Illinois through the Capital Development Board.  The facility will house the comprehensive Automotive Programs, Ford Asset, Collision Repair, Industrial Technology, and Welding.  Precast concrete walls have been erected, and structural steel and metal insulated roof decking are currently being installed.  The Geothermal wells have been bored, electrical conduit for the main electrical feeds are being trenched in, and site work grading is continuing.  The intent is to have the facility ready for classes in fall 2012.

Looking Southwest

Steel Erection East Side Entryway

Geothermal Well Drilling

Electrical Transformer Pad and Conduit

                                                                                                                                                                
Wing Remodeling –Work on the X Wing  2nd and 3rd floors is continuing with carpet installation and woodwork remodeling.
  

2nd Floor X Wing Study Area

  

2nd Floor X Wing demolition

Master Plan Phase II

Student Services Center – This project is approximately 96,000 SF of new space that will house all student service functions, including additional student lounge and food service space.   Architects Perkins and Will are currently working on Construction Plans and Documents, which should be completed by late summer.  The project should be released for bids in the early fall.   Construction should begin in late fall pending Board approval.  The intent is to have the facility completed in fall of 2013 or spring of 2014.

Fitness Center – This project is an addition to the existing Dodds Athletic Center.  The completion of this project would give the College a new "state of the art" athletic facility with space for Kinesiology, dance and aerobics, strength training, an indoor walking track, new locker rooms and team rooms, and coach’s offices.  Included in this project would be the remodeling of the lower level of the gymnasium. The first phase of construction has started with the demolition and reconstruction of the locker rooms and site work for the new addition.  Completion of the project is scheduled for August of 2012.

  Shower room reconstruction

Site work, looking south

PHS Drainage Improvements Phase XII  - Phase XII of the Campus Drainage Improvements is focused on the areas adjacent to the Tony Noel Agricultural Technology Center and the new Applied Technology Center.  The existing parking lot will be reconstructed and enlarged, resulting in improved storm water drainage, additional walkways and adding 100 parking spaces.  On the west side of the Tony Noel facility, storm water drainage will be improved and concrete access pads will be installed.  The project is currently on schedule to open the second week of August.

   North side of the Noel Ag Tech facility

East side of the Noel Ag Tech facility

Be careful in the heat and enjoy the summer.

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