By Tiana Alicea
On Friday, April 26, Middlesex Community College hosted the 2013 Academic Awards Ceremony. The award ceremony is an event that honors students who have upheld outstanding academic achievements. Students with the highest GPA in their degree program or discipline receive an award. Other factors such as student leadership and community service are weighed when selecting the student receiving the award.
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By Gordon Lewis
After 42 years of indispensible service, Middlesex Community College Professor Gregory Horne will retire at the end of this year’s spring semester. As a vital representative of the Social Sciences department, Horne has become an icon of the school’s Psychology department. Over the course of his expansive career, he has taught over two dozen courses, including several in disciplines like business, sociology and communication.
Horne started teaching at MxCC directly out of graduate school. Though teaching was not his original career choice, he quickly developed a passion for it. “I taught in a Junior High School in the Indianapolis School system while still in grad school. The school was in a rough neighborhood, and there was a lot of raw energy.”
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By John Shafer and Lauri Makuck
Middlesex Community College President, Anna Wasescha, recently issued a challenge to all college employees to improve student success on campus. Her challenge focused on three major areas: increasing the capture rates of eligible college students who live in our geographic area but attend other community colleges; increasing retention of students from one year to the next; and increasing graduation rates of students in degree-seeking programs. These are all areas where Middlesex is currently behind other community colleges of comparable size, both in the state and nationally.
President Wasescha presented this challenge through a PowerPoint display at a recent College Assembly meeting that included all fulltime faculty and staff as well as a number of students in attendance. Backing up her dare, the President offered statistics gathered from national college surveys such as “The Survey of Entering Student Engagement” (SENSE) and “Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System” (IPEDS).
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By Gordon Lewis
Every so often the entertainment industry churns out something so monumental that you’d be foolish not to experience it first hand. “Bioshock Infinite,” the third installment of the “Bioshock” trilogy and the latest release from Irrational Games is without question one of those things. In the words of famed game critic Adam Sessler, “Even with my very, very high expectations, there are things in the game that really surprised me, things I just haven’t seen before.”
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By Mary McAndrew
The Middlesex Community College Fifth Annual Faculty, Staff, & Student Poetry Reading was held in the Student Lounge in Founders Hall on April 18. A place that is usually a bustling hub of activity during the school day was transformed into a tranquil retreat. The Creative Writing Club performed nothing short of magic. They perfectly set the mood for an enchanting evening.
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By David Fortuna
Tuesday April 9, seemed like any other day in Jane Stamler’s American Government class, as students passed in homework and reviewed recent political news. However, this class would play host to Middletown Mayor Dan Drew who was greeted by thunderous applause upon arrival. After a brief introduction, Mayor Drew opened it up to questions as he explained he would, “rather [have a] dialogue than speak at you.” The first couple of questions prompted Mayor Drew to discuss the recent visit of President Barrack Obama to the University of Hartford on Monday April 8, which was an outcry for gun control in relation to the tragedy of the Sandy Hook shooting. Mayor Drew found the President’s words to be “potent,” as he showed the class images taken with his mobile device. He told the class he is part of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” and spoke of teaching as a daily, courageous, act of “touching young peoples lives.” This lead to Mayor Drew explaining the “gun show loophole,” and touching upon the history of the term “going postal.” Eventually, the conversation lead to the Mayor’s plans for Middletown going into the future, which is still in it’s developmental stages.
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By Mary McAndrew
Starting in the summer of 2013 staffing at Middlesex Community College will be undergoing major changes. College President, Anna Wasescha, laid out these new plans in a recent Power Point to MxCC faculty and staff.
The goal of the staff reorganization is greater student success for all MxCC students on both our Middletown and Meriden campuses. There will be a stronger focus on improving the academic advising of General Studies and Liberal Arts students as well as the addition of more full-time staff assigned to teaching entry-level courses.
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By Luis Serazo
As a part of Earth Week, Matt Pezzemte, President of the Computer Club at MxCC helped to organize this year’s Electronic Recycling Day (April 25).
This is the fourth year that the event has been held. The group collected old electronics to be recycled and/or disposed off accordingly. The computer club also collected donations during the event, in order to award a new computer to a student in need.
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By Delfina Rosario
On Wednesday May 8th, the Student Senate will be hosting an event called Spring Fest. It is held as a celebration of spring and is a great opportunity for students to kick back, relax and enjoy the first days of spring and the last days of school. The event will be hosted on the lawn behind Snow Hall. There will be food, a DJ, and Photo Booth. The event will take place between 11:00am-2:00pm and admission is free for students of Middlesex Community College.
By Marie Hughes
Lately, it seems as though almost everyone is on a crazy fitness journey. It is clear in our social media especially on Instagram and Twitter how everyday people who have reached exceptional fitness goals.
This makes it somewhat difficult not to try to make a change in my own lifestyle. In our “super-sized” world, these successful fitness journeys seem to be slowly counteracting most carefree nutritional ways. With everyone making little to major health and fitness changes in their lifestyle, does this extend to the average college student?
Personally, I noticed fewer college going students pay little to no attention to their food intake and their active lifestyles. For the average college student, there is no time for going to the gym because in all honesty, any free time would be used for college parties and pub nights.
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