Biden spoke at MCC-Penn Valley HSI (Stephanie Weissman/The Current).

by Stephanie Weissman

MCC-Penn Valley Health Science Institute hosted Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, in a round-table discussion on the topic “Community College to Career” on April 30.

Jill Biden is a long-time educator who continues to teach full-time. She and Assistant Labor Secretary Jane Oates shared the round-table with three students, who took part in giving their own personal experiences with working and their education.

The group discussed the MoHealthWINs program; the way students have been put directly into the workforce; and also businesses that have hired students from the MCC campuses.

“This is exciting for students and the link to education employment. It’s not just getting the degree,” said Cheryl Carpenter Davis, Dean of Instruction at MCC-Blue River.

Before the discussion began, Biden spoke of her support for community colleges. She teaches in the education department of Northern Virginia Community College.

“This was an opportunity to collaborate with people with similar scenarios,” said John Bone, a student at MCC-Business & Technology. Bone, with MCC- B&T  student Ethan Roy, spoke during the round-table discussion about his job and how it connects with his MCC experiences.

The panel gave perspectives from every angle about workforce development and the discussion highlighted the importance of gaining an education and the ability to enhance the workforce.

“It’s cool to see the whole picture,” said Roy.

Biden said her  visit at MCC gives her a first-hand look at how students from community colleges can truly contribute and make a difference.

Michael Holcomb/The Current

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by Stephanie Weissman

Families and friends joined together when Longview lent its campus to the Flights of Fancy Mega Kite Festival. On April 20, the event brought together people of all ages to the annual event, which was on its sixth year. The festival’s activities for children included kite making, a balloon artist, face painting and kite flying; all who came were able to see mega kites fly through the sky, as well as stunt kites. Kites that ranged from original to Dora the Explorer flew through the sunny, spring sky.

“It’s great getting out to fly and to show what we can do,” said Terri Wible, a member on the board of the Kansas City Kite Club. Wible, who has been flying kites for 20 years, was one of the many people who attended the festival to fly their own kites. “I’m glad that there is such a good turn out, and to see so many enjoy the event,” said Wible. At the event, there was a kite hospital, where people could take their kites to get fixed, and some people from around the country set up tents to help people learn more about kites.

“We’ve attended Kite festivals in Japan, China, Denmark, Mexico, and all over the United States,” said Oklahoma native Richard Dermer. Aside from being a kite activist, Dermer and his wife own a pizza hot-spot called Hole in the Wall Pizza in Oklahoma. Dermer shows how anyone can be a kite-flyer, and that it can be truly an enjoyable experience, as he has done so for over 30 years.

The event itself originated with Lee’s Summit City Councilman Allan Gray, the honorary chair of the event. Gray helped with the concept and serves on the committee to provide moral support.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for Lee’s Summit. It encourages families to come out and have outdoor fun – young and hold and from all backgrounds,” said Gray. Gray spent the festival working with people and having a good time.  “Kites are universal. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that all of this started with a simple conversation and to see Longview not just as a school, but as a community,” he said.

With a turn-out calculated at 20,000 people by the Lee’s Summit Fire Department, the Flights of Fancy Kite Festival allowed for many people to spend their Saturday amongst friends, family and peers with a beautiful, kite-filled view.

On February 29, MCC shut down its “Open Wireless” internet access, closing off internet access to everyone except students, faculty and staff.  Many campus users wondered what was happening and for what purpose.

“It’s a security risk, flat out,” said Campus Outreach Coordinator Alex Grigsby of the Business and Technology Campus. “Making sure that the students and employees of the college have secure internet access is nothing short of a rigorously performed task, and with an open door things are bound to get in.”

Users now must use the wireless connection that requires an MCC login.

The college had been discussing the closing of the open wireless for some time, according to Grigsby, and in order for the college’s Information Technology  department to conform to current industry standard,s the open wireless needed to be closed.

Justin White, Interim Campus Network Coordinator at BTC, confirmed Grigsby’s explanation for the closure.  “It is a lot of different things that all came to a head at once,” White said.  “We have needed to shut down the open wireless for numerous reasons, the most important of which is security.”  White pointed out that a considerable amount of personal information is on the MCC servers about students, faculty and staff.

“It closes the back door that hackers might have had to access that sensitive information,”  White said.

White noted that  some issues included neighbors to the campus accessing the open internet to play games, stealing internet bandwidth, and accessing in appropriate pornographic material.

“It’s a good thing that was long overdue, not only to protect the school’s IT infrastructure but to protect its student’s personal information as well,” White said.

Lately, the halls of MCC-Longview are filled with high-and tight-haircuts, buzz cuts, and military bags from different services. You don’t have to be ex-military or some secret agent to be aware of this fact—the U.S. military active duty and veteran population at MCC-Longview is growing fast as soldiers return home to seek education and a new life sans uniform.

This fact is even more apparent upon visiting the MCC-Longview Student Financial Aid Office, where Sandra Kremer, Veterans & Financial Aid Office Supervisor for MCC-Longview, presently oversees the processing of veteran requests for their use of Montgomery G.I. and Post-9/11 G.I. Bill educational benefits.

“The amount of veterans submitting request has increased almost two-fold in the last six months,” Kremer said.

Matthew Ketcher, an MCC-Longview student, Marine veteran and National Guardsman, expressed some concerns about recent changes to educational benefits, specifically the limited veteran support for non-college degree training like IT certification, flight school and other non-degree training.

“College isn’t meant for everyone. Military service members are no different in this aspect. There seems to be a real bias on the part of the Veteran’s Administration to support the replenishment of the blue-collar worker pool—you know, like supporting industrial occupational training,” Ketcher said.

To date, MCCKC as whole is not approved by the VA as a Non-College Degree Training school, according to Kremer.  This is in light of the Oct. 1, 2012 change, which allows for some basic certifications training to be paid for, but without any VA living allowance or stipend support which degree-seeking Veteran students do receive.

Even with some of these complications, MCC-Longview students like Amani Al-Halaq feel that now is a good time to get an education.

“That’s a huge concern of mine, just as it is getting a job after college,” he said.

It’s hard to ignore the benefit of 36-months of tuition coverage, $500 per semester for books and material,s and a living allowance of $1,000 per month, based on Kansas City’s government calculated per-diem locality cost.

One final sign of the veteran tide and the toll it is taking on MCCKC Financial Aid Offices is that, according to Kremer, MCC is going through “a major transition, where there will be one dedicated representative handling all G.I. bill requests, located at MCCKC’s district office. Responsibilities will be shifted accordingly from all the campuses, and the student aid office will only be in charge of forwarding request to the MCCKC Veterans Representative.”

Will this change properly support the needs of our returning veterans? They will find out soon enough, as the change in how submissions are handled is due to take effect for summer 2012.

On March 15, the Metropolitan Community College board of trustees approved a proposal to increase tuition fees, effective for the summer semester of this year. Tuition will increase by $5 per credit hour and $2 per contact hour lab fees, whether it is in-district, out-of-district, or out-of-state tuition.

The increase is designed to help alleviate and balance the college’s budget.

“Gov. Nixon has announced considerable cuts to state funding of higher education over the last few years, which has caused colleges and universities around the state, including MCC, to rethink both expenditures and sources of revenue,” said Mary Birkel, Communications & Public Relations Coordinator. “The tuition increase is one of quite a few ways MCC is working to balance the college’s budget.”

In the midst of such change, officials are seeking to explain that college is trying to accommodate student concerns.

“With the continued reductions in revenue to MCC and all higher education institutions in the state, we have been working diligently to make MCC a preferred and affordable for the area, while having a balanced budget each year,” said Tuesday Stanley, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services and Student Development.  “We are not closing the budget gap with the tuition increase.”

“My office and communication team are currently developing and executing a plan to let students and others know about the change,” Stanley said.

Despite the college’s reassurance, some students do worry about how the tuition increase will impact them as a whole. One is MCC-Longview student Hillary Yearout.

“I feel the tuition increase is unjustified, because this is a community college.  The tuition should be lower for students who are just going to college. They need to start out cheap so they can go and afford a four-year college down the road,” Yearout said.

MCC Notify Me is the college’s emergency text message alert system that helps keep students and employees informed. This system will send subscribers a message to their cell phone or other mobile device in case of emergencies, time-sensitive situations, or weather-related  closings, according to MCC Insider.

The subscription period does not expire for 180 days and students who subscribe will be able to decide whether they want to continue with their subscription or de-activate the subscription. When logging into myMCCKC, students will receive a pop-up message that will allow them to renew their subscription or terminate the service. If subscribing students who like to continue receiving emergency notifications, including campus closures, then the subscription will need to be renewed.

Students who are not currently enrolled in this service, but would like to be, can log into myMCCKC and click on “Manage MCC Notify Me.” This is located in the lower left-hand. The subscription process takes three simple steps and will be good for 180 days.

Besides MCC Notify Me, the college sends out many other emergency notifications. MCC Insider said emergency notifications can also be found the MCC’s homepage and the MCC alert page. Inclement weather closing information can also be found on local television channels and radio news programs. Depending on the situation, emergency alerts may also be sent your student MCC email, as well. While on one of the campus, an alert message may be broadcast in buildings using a siren or public address system.

Neglect.

Physical punishment.

Abuse.

Every year in the U.S., kids are abused by a multitude of people, from strangers to even their own families.  It is a serious problem with no foreseeable end in sight. Not unless awareness about these incidents is raised.

Since 1983, the U.S. has declared April National Child Abuse Prevention Month – an effort that seeks to not only teach about child abuse, but to prevent it.

“Missouri has Kids First, and they do some programming,” psychology instructor Angela Bahner said.  “There is also a KC Child Abuse Roundtable organization that works on prevention and they have a Facebook page up and running with information,” Bahner said. “They have lots of information, including an iPhone app that will give you a child abuse fact every day in April.”

While cities and states take their own initiative to inform the people, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is looking to bring the situation into a greater picture.

“The government website has much information on child abuse,” CDCG (The Child Growth and Development Department) Academic Advisor Donna Nelson said. “There is also a National Conference on this matter held each year and there is information on that.”

At the government site, people can look at methods of prevention and statistics collected. A comprehensive reportsays that there were almost 700,000 cases of child abuse in the U.S. in 2011.

Even our own campus is taking initiative to inform people.

“Blue River is currently working on a child abuse awareness day for April 7 called, All for the Children,” Blue River sociology instructor Cynthia Tooley said. All for the Children is a day when children can participate in a 3,000-egg hunt, engage in a self-defense seminar, and enjoy other related activities. MCC Students are urged to come as well in order to learn about child abuse prevention.

• Missouri Kids First
• Kansas City Child Abuse Prevention Month
• Child Welfare Information Gateway

Stephanie Weissman/The Current

Click here to view slideshow.

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.

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. This is more than any other age group. College students, although notoriously broke, make ideal victims. This is because of their clean credit histories and “the availability of personal information and the way many students handle this data,” says the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

According to a 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy and Research, social networking sites are a growing entry point for fraudsters to get personal information. College students are often careless about what they post online, and could inadvertently provide information such as a phone number or hometown or a hint to a password.

The Better Business Bureau  suggests these seven steps for college students to prevent identity theft:

•  School mailboxes are not always secure and can often be easily accessed in a dorm or apartment. To combat sticky fingers in the mailroom, have sensitive mail sent to a permanent address such as the parents’ home or a PO box.
• Important documents should be stored under lock and key―such as in a filing cabinet. This includes social security card, passport and bank and credit card statements. Shred any paper documents that have sensitive financial information rather than just tossing them out. Also shred any credit card offers that come in the mail.
•  Never loan your credit or debit card to anyone, even if they are a friend. Also just say no if your friend wants you to co-sign for a loan or financing for items like a TV.
•  Make sure your computer has up-to-date antivirus and spyware software. Always install any updates and patches to your computer’s operating system or browser software which help keep your computer safe from any new advances by identity thieves online.
•  Always check your credit or debit card statements closely for any suspicious activity. The sooner you identify any potential fraud, the less you’ll suffer in the long run.
•  When shopping on unfamiliar websites, always check the company out first with BBB online. Also look for the BBB Accredited Business seal along with other trust seals; click on the seals to confirm that they are legitimate.
•  Check your credit report at least once a year with all three reporting bureaus for any suspicious activity or inaccuracies. You can do this for free by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.