The Current Online

by David Hiestand

To help students and faculty stay safe and aware of their surroundings, the MCC Police Department will now be sharing safety tips and other useful information via their new Twitter account.

“We wanted to use another medium to get information out to our faculty and students,” says MCC Associate Director of Public Safety Domenick Brouillette, who recently made the decision to implement Twitter.

In addition to regularly tweeting safety tips, Brouillette says @MCCPoliceDept will keep followers up to date about campus closings, areas under construction, closed parking lots, and any other information that will “help students and faculty get around better,” he said.

Emergency messages will be tweeted in addition to being emailed, posted on the MCC Alert web page, and texted through the MCC Notify Me text messaging service.

Twitter users can now follow the MCC Police Department by texting “Follow MCCPoliceDept” to 40404, or by going to twitter.com/MCCPoliceDept.

by Tiffany Ellis

Attending classes, staying caught up on textbook reading, studying for tests, and a revved up social life keep college students very busy. Holding a job and caring for a family add to the worries of many MCC students. Unfortunately the last thing on their mind could be one of the most important.

Twenty-four percent of identity theft victims are age 20-29, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission. [...]

by Kari Dragoo

Teen homelessness has become an epidemic. More than two million teens go homeless every night in the U.S. Thirty-two percent have attempted suicide, and 46 percent left home because of abuse. The statistics don’t get better from there. Eighty-five percent of homeless teens have substance abuse problems. One third of homeless youth are lured into prostitution within the first 48 hours of homelessness, and 15 percent of homeless teens do not live to see the age of eighteen.

One Homeless Night, an event hosted across the metro on Nov. 11, is a way to raise money to keep the doors open at Synergy Services, a safe facility for teens who have nowhere else to go. This year MCC-Longview raised over $3,000 to help this cause. Students and other people in the MCC community slept out in an effort to raise awareness about homeless living conditions. [...]

by Elizabeth Crow

Metropolitan Community College will soon make going to class more convenient for Cass County students.

Starting in February, MCC will offer classes in Cass County at the Belton High School Freshman Center.  Enrollment is already under way for the seven classes that will be offered there this spring. [...]