CAMPUS National Poetry Month

Published by the Office of Institutional Advancement A Merced College News MagazineDIGESTVol. II Edition 9 APRIL 2013 Tech Savvy President Taylor ponders the impact Full-Time Appreciation Merced College steps out Manner of Speaking Editor offers a personal essay technology has on the teaching and learning experi- to honor and show appreciation to its part-time faculty on the life and legacy of John Ciardi, an important but ence, as well as on staff work load. Page 2 in April. Page 3 neglected American poet. Page 7

Candy’s Dandy

Photo by Jay Sousa Members of the Associated Students of Merced College were busy raising money one candy bar at a time to fund a trip to Washington D.C. Seven students traveled to the nation’s capitol during Spring Break, including ASMC officer Damaris Raluy, 20, who was found manning the ‘candy window’ in the Student Union Building. CAMPUS DIGEST APRIL 2013 Conference Supports Technology for Learning Streamlining Processes and Easing Work Load Ultimately Helps Students

By Dr. Ron Taylor Superintendent/President Accreditation Team Visit Set for April 22

“April is the We have confirmation of our accreditation site visit. Two previous cruelest month,” said T.S. Eliot, team members (from our 2011 visit) are scheduled to arrive next Monday, famously. He was April 22. talking about the The team members are: Dr. Sandra Mayo, president of Moreno Val- return of spring ley College, and Mr. Raj Bajaj, dean of Institutional Reporting, Riverside and how it de- CCD. feats winter, so In a side note, the original team chair, Dr. Jackie Fisher, was recently in to speak, and a terrible auto accident, and is still hospitalized. overturns our We do not yet have a schedule of interviews for the visit, but I urge grim assump- Dr. Taylor you—especially if you are a leader of a governance constituency or a chair tions about the of one of the master planning committees—to keep yourself as available inevitable march of society into oblivion. as possible on Monday, and to respond quickly if you get a phone call or Other poets down through the ages email. We want their visit to be effective and efficient. have also spoken about April, usually cel- If any questions arise, please contact Dr. Anne Newins or her assistant, ebrating springtime as a time of rebirth. Toni McCall. (“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote --President Taylor . . .” said Chaucer, speaking of the “sweet showers” of rain that refresh the earth and produce abundance. Wouldn’t we like to run our payrolls, issue payments to service isolated individual who is more interested see a little more rain around here just now?) providers, and many other things. It is the in numbers or cool gadgets than in people. But since I wrote about springtime in heart of our information technology as an Having spent a little time with a few hun- last month’s Digest, and since it’s a hack- operation. dred technology managers and support neyed topic anyway, let me see if I can give This was a big conference—about 8,000 staff, I can assure you that the stereotype you a counter-statement to Eliot’s grim in attendance. I was one of about 100 col- has one thing definitely wrong: these folks, picture of humanity’s devastation. (Bear in lege presidents attending their Executive as a group, are very interested in our col- mind he was writing right after World War Forum. (My humble thanks to the TIR lective well being. They want it all to work I and thinking about mass psychosis.) managers for insisting I go and helping to for students and they want our institutional To present a brighter picture, I’ll need get me there.) While I have a long history lives to improve. to set aside my shock at my tax bill, and of working with technology, nevertheless, If a technology-based solution can I’ll also need to disregard for a minute the to say that I learned something at the con- streamline a work practice that is taking us news that just came out of . But I ference is an understatement. extra time and trouble, and causing us to can do it, and it’s worth doing. Here goes— What was most pleasing to hear was feel frazzled and over-worked, they want something about Merced College and the how serious the technology world is about to work with us to provide the solution. wonderful future ahead of us . . . institutional effectiveness and support for Speaking frankly, I’m all for it, too. Any- A couple of weeks ago, I attended the student learning. The folks at Ellucian, and thing we can do to streamline our work and Ellucian Live conference. You may not their many partner companies are busy provide service to students more smoothly know much about Ellucian. It is a tech- working to develop applications that will and gracefully is a very good thing. nology company that was born out of the help us interact with students who live on We are just about to forward a new merger of Sungard Higher Education’s their cell phones, for example (a “mobile Technology Master Plan to the Board of Banner database system and Datatel’s Col- app” has been rolled out). And they are also Trustees for final approval. As we do so, I league database system. In other words, it is busy preparing software that might help us am eager for us to renew our commitment the dominant company in higher education coordinate our institutional planning bet- to providing up-to-date technology in the database systems. To us at Merced College, ter than the combination of Curricunet and classroom, in the offices of the college, and Ellucian is the provider of our Colleague web-postings we are now using. online. software through which we register and Too often, technology geeks get a bad Have a great month—next month we enroll students, build the class schedule, rap. The stereotype is of a quiet, serious, will be preparing for Commencement! Page 2 APRIL 2013 CAMPUS DIGEST Time to Honor MC’s Part-time Instructors

By Kathleen Brantley-Gutierrez Reference Librarian

Once again April is Part-time Faculty Appreciation Month at Merced College! All members of our campus community are invited to join in the celebration of our valuable part-time faculty members. To help celebrate, MCFA has offered funding for cohorts and areas to pro- vide activities or food for part-time faculty during the month. The Academic Senate will also recognize the contributions of part-time faculty members. Each cohort will designate a part-time faculty member for recognition as the cohort “Part-time Faculty Member of the Year.” The candidates will then be presented to the Academic Senate on April 25, which will present these faculty members to the Board of Trustees at the May 7 meeting. Following the Academic Senate’s presentation, MCFA Presi- dent Keith Law will share a presentation that depicts the contri- butions and the challenges faced by part-time faculty members. Merced College employs approximately 420 part-time faculty members who teach approximately 879 courses. Beyond the classroom, hard working part-time faculty mem- bers are also located in the Learning Resources Center, Tri-College Center, Workplace Learning Resource Center, Guidance Center, Business Resource Center, Study Central, and in various labs. Other contributions by part-time faculty members include Photo by Robin Shepard meeting with students, participating in SLO assessments, and ac- This ‘Code Blue Box’ is located on the east side of the creditation program review processing. Communications Building. In 2009, MCFA began its campaign to recognize the value of part-time faculty members, many of whom were being laid off due to budget cuts. Since its inception at Merced College, Part-time Code Blue Boxes Faculty Appreciation Month has become a statewide event, as the Sacramento-based Community College Association now pro- Help in Emergencies motes and helps fund events throughout the system. Part-time Faculty Appreciation Month was originally con- Located throughout campus, Code Blue Boxes (yellow in ceived to bring attention to the contributions of our part-time fac- color), are provided for emergencies. These are not payphones ulty members, and also to highlight their challenges. For examples, and should not be used as such. part-time faculty members are required to fulfill the same teach- Al Code Blue Boxes have a RED button for help and ing responsibilities as full-time faculty members; however, students a BLACK button for information. Pressing the BLACK have little or no access to them outside of the classroom because button will provide you connecting options to Dial-A-Ride, they are not compensated for office hours. Part-time faculty mem- Merced Taxi, City Express Taxi, or the Operator. Pressing the bers also have no health insurance, insignificant retirement, and no RED button will connect you to emergency personnel. compensation for work in the areas of grading/prep time, commit- Once connection has been established, speak clearly tee and department meetings, SLOs, and other assessments. through the receiver, state your name, the location, and what Though these challenges exist, we are also thankful that MCFA the emergency is—the more information you can provide, the negotiated a hourly pay-raise, and a new pay structure that includes better. 10 pay periods and an improved 8 step/5 column salary schedule. And, more importantly, try to be as calm as possible and Please join MCFA and the Academic Senate as we share our know that assistance is on its way. appreciation of part-time faculty members. We will also rededicate For non-emergencies, contact Campus Police at ourselves to improving their working conditions, which also will 209.384.6054. contribute to the success of students. Page 3 CAMPUS DIGEST APRIL 2013

Prop. 39 Funds Benefit Colleges

Proposition 39 Energy Efficiency Initiative benefits Merced Community College District Approved by California voters in November 2012, Proposition 39 estab- This is an architectural rendering of the new campus monument signs. lishes a new Clean Energy Job Creation Fund. Proposition 39 is expected to ac- crue roughly $2.65 billion in taxpayer Wayfinding Project Nearing dollars for investment in energy effi- ciency and clean energy job creation in California. End of Initial Planning Stage For the first five years, Proposition 39 will dedicate half of the revenues After almost a year of planning the structed and installed by early fall 2013. recovered to job-creating energy ef- design of the new Merced Campus signs, Also included in the project is a new cam- ficiency and clean energy programs. the Wayfinding Subcommittee, with input pus map. These programs will include projects at from the campus community, is close to fi- Administrative Services staff is pleased schools and government buildings such nalizing the plans. with the planning process and worked hard as installing solar panels, upgrading old The next step will be approval by the to ensure that the progress was shared with heating and cooling systems, swapping Board of Trustees in May and then prepa- all constituencies throughout the entire out old windows and installing other ration of the bid documents. process. energy-saving technologies. It is anticipated the signs will be con- Under the leadership of Vice Presi- dent Schultz, Administrative Services Student to Present Research Results Staff is currently working with utility companies to determine the best proj- at Geological Society Conference ects for the Merced Community Col- lege District. By Robert Davies The mineral that is used to determine The Proposition 39 funds will be distributed to the states’s community Professor of Geology the different pressures and temperatures is chiastolite. Chiastolite is identified by dark colleges according to their FTES. Staff will continue to share updates When you look to the east at the Sierra colored inclusions of carbonaceous mate- rial making a distinctive cross-shaped fig- through the Facilities Master Planning Nevada Mountains, it’s easy to see the tow- Committee and through published doc- ering snowcapped ranges, the wide glacially ure in cross section. Locally, these are called “cross-rocks.” uments such as the Campus Digest. formed valley, and the abundant and diverse The FMPC website is located on the plant and animal life. But how, exactly, did This mineral is typically formed where a cooling magma body heats up the sur- MC4Me portal and is kept updated on the mountains form? What was the effect a regular basis. Check the FMPC site of this huge mass of slowly cooling magma rounding rock and changes the mineralogy. Geologic maps locate the occurrence of regularly for up-to-date facilities plan- on the surrounding rock? ning activities. These questions can be explored by ex- these minerals, and that knowledge is used amining the minerals that formed in the to refine our understanding of the forma- surrounding rocks, mapping their occur- tion of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. time to present the information to a larger rence, and trying to determine the changes Knowledge of a particular mineral oc- audience. in the Eath’s crust as the Sierras formed. currence does little good however, when On May 22nd, I and John Almand will Every semester, physical geology stu- it is not shared with other scientists; the present findings that extend mapped occur- dents conduct a field trip to investigate process of distributing information often rence of chiastolite, with hopes of having these questions, and the data gathered dur- includes a presentation of findings at a pro- this rock included in future publications of ing these trips has allowed one student, fessional convention. the Geologic Map of California. This will John Almand, and myself an opportunity This year, the Geological Society of be the first time Merced College has been to share our findings on the slate beds just America (GSA) is holding its section con- represented at the GSA, and it is a chance ference in Fresno, making this a perfect East of Planada. See Geology, page 8. Page 4 APRIL 2013 CAMPUS DIGEST More Spring Book Experience Encourages Theater Events Students to Make a Difference April By Margaret Withers collect come money and donate to one of Professor of English the partner organizations (i.e., the UN, Guitar Orchestra Concert Heifer International, GEM) and be part I’d like to tell you about an event of the solution. I let the classes decide (2 Merced College Theater which occurred in my class. sections) and we named a $2 minimum Directed by Nathaniel Dahman My students in English 81 are with a $10 maximum gift for this. I let April 27 at 7:30 p.m. reading the book, Half the Sky: Turning the students collect the money and they Admission: $10 General, $8 Students & Oppression into Opportunity for Women gave it to me this morning, when we Faculty Worldwide, by Nicholas Krystof and had a ‘”giving party” in my 11 a.m. 81 Sheryl WuDunn. The book deals with section. May the horrendous issues women (and thus, We collected and gave over $250 children) deal with as a matter of their (with more to come I’ve heard) to 10 of Student Art Exhibit daily lives. It is a painful book, but by the the partner organizations. Nothing but end of each chapter, the authors intro- Nets, (which gives people mosquito nets Merced College Art Gallery duce someone who is making a differ- so they don’t get malaria), got $32, The May 1–16 ence, and who lives in the solution rather Fistula Foundation got $66, Heifer got Reception: May 1, 6-7:30 p.m than the problem, so I feel good asking $62, shot@Life got $28 (they provide them to read about such life experiences vaccines for children’s vaccines), UNF - Guitar Master Class with Marc Teicholz as rape, sex trade victims, etc. Clean Cookstoves got $22, GEMS (girls from San Francisco Conservatory Facebook recently introduced the who have suffered from sexual exploita- “Half the Sky” game and my students tion both domestic and foreign, got $24, Lesher Room 111 are participating as a means to get them Intel, which promotes digital literacy Friday, May 3 from 1-4 p.m. to read more as well as to become more and education to help create change got Free admission technically literate, and in order to help $17, Room to Read - provides books and them to see how little it actually takes education - $21, UN Access Founda- Jazz Ensemble Concert to be a part of the solution. They love tion - (family planning through the UN) Special Guest: Matt Finders from the the game! One of my students wrote in got $11, and Girl Up, a forum to develop Tonight Show with Jay Leno his response paper to me a couple weeks leadership skills in U.S. girls so they can ago that he would like to see the class do outreach worldwide, got $13. Merced College Theater I think my students are amazing! Directed by Ken Taylor May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Admission: $10 general, $8 students & MC Makes Strides in Student Success faculty

The state Chancellor’s Office recently progress in math and English, and rates for Concert Band Performance released Student Success Scorecards for all graduates, transfers and certificate-earners 112 community colleges. who complete several vocational courses. Merced College Theater Each college is compared against its The Scorecard also provides details re- Directed by Mark Doiel own past performance using a key metrics. garding key performance measures by gen- May 10 at 7:30 p.m. “The 2013 Scorecard clearly demon- der, race/ethnicity and age, which helps col- Admission: $8 General, $5 students & strates Merced College’s improved perfor- leges identify performance in key subgroup faculty mance over time on most key measures of areas, which may suggest opportunities for student success,” said President Taylor. further investigation and improvement. Spring Chorale Concert The Scorecard tracks the 2006-2007 “We are definitely making strides in the Chorale & Chamber Singers student cohort for six years through the right direction,” said President Taylor. “We 2011-2012 school year and includes a col- expect to use the ARCC 2013 Scorecard Merced College Theater lege profile, rates of graduation, transfer as a baseline from which to measure and Directed by Curtis Nelson and certificate earning, rates of students improve our performance in future years.” May 17 & 18 at 8 p.m. who enroll in their first three consecutive The Scorecard can be found at http:// Admission: $10 general, $8 advance sales terms (“persistence”), rates of students who www.scorecard.cccco.edu and on the Col- complete at least 30 units, rates of remedial lege’s website at http://www.mccd.edu/. Page 5 CAMPUS DIGEST APRIL 2013 Teaching and Learning Successes Still Mystify

By Dr. John Spevak have long believed the dynamic of teaching ly, following through on assignments and Professor of English and learning is largely a mystery. collaborating with other students. While teaching a community college Such a discussion of plausible reasons class this semester, my belief was reinforced would be useful, but it wouldn’t explain Besides writing this column, I keep my- when I realized the students in this class with any certainty why this semester’s stu- self busy by teaching part-time at our local had mastered the information and skills dents are doing so well. college campus. I enjoy teaching, and the better than any previous group of students I’d like to think I’m a better teacher, us- process of teaching and learning has in- I had taught in the same course. ing more effective classroom pedagogies. trigued me since I taught my first course Why did this happen? Am I now a bet- Maybe that’s partially true. But I’d be fool- in 1969. ing myself if I concluded that What does it take to be a was the primary reason. good teacher? How do stu- I could say this semester’s dents learn? What exactly is students are better learners, happening at the interchange which might be true, but I of teaching and learning? would likewise be foolish to These are complex, enig- think I know precisely why. matic questions at any level of So what has made this education, from pre-school to group of students learn bet- post-doctoral. ter? Perhaps they were more Many people think they motivated and goal oriented. have definitive answers, but I Perhaps they were academi- think the “definitive answers” cally better prepared. are simply “educated guesses.” Perhaps my students’ lives My perspective was reinforced this semester were less hectic. when I read an opinion in a So many community college recently published book by a students have tumultuous highly respected educational lives. Maybe this group has researcher, Dr. Norton Grubb more time and space to study of the University of California and learn. at Berkeley. What is the answer? I The provocative and articulate book, ter teacher? If so, why? Are the students don’t know. Nor does anyone else, for sure. “Basic Skills Education in Community better learners? If so why? The answer to But I do know this: Good teaching and Colleges,” presents the research Grubb and both questions is, “I don’t know.” In this successful learning require intense work. his associates collected while visiting com- case and in other classes I’ve taught with Teachers need to create classes that munity colleges, as they tried to determine different results, I agree with Grubb, that are stimulating and engaging. Students, in why some college classes succeed while neither I nor anyone else could tell you, turn, need to participate actively and think others collapse. with definite assurance, the reasons. extensively. At one point Professor Grubb candidly Yes, I could talk about reasonable expla- When teachers’ and students’ intense ef- writes, “With the current state of knowl- nations, like effective teaching approaches forts mutually succeed, we may not know edge and data, no one, absolutely no one, using constructivist classroom techniques precisely why, but we can and should be has any idea about which reasons are more that engage students, with emphases on grateful. important than others.” high expectations and frequent encourage- That conclusion may come as a surprise ment. John Spevak has contributed a regular col- to some people, since a great deal of infor- Or I could talk about student traits umn in the Los Banos Enterprise for 29 years. mation has been collected and many words that lead to success, like having clear career This column was published in the Enterprise written about education over the centuries. goals, being highly motivated, having good on April 12. But Grubb’s statement didn’t surprise me. I academic preparation, showing up regular- We Salute our Part-time Faculty in April!

Page 6 APRIL 2013 CAMPUS DIGEST On the Anniversary of his Death: In Praise of John Ciardi

By Robin Shepard both startling and amusing, but it is thor- singular voice throughout his career. From Public Information Officer oughly fresh and new. This is an extended his years as poetry editor of the Saturday metaphor in which the bees are described Review and through his leadership of the as pirates raiding a ship: Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Ciardi’s John Ciardi died on Easter Sunday in reputation was matched by few others. Re- 1986. Having packed his 69 years more “Morning glories, pale as a mist drying, grettably, today, his readership has all but fully than most, the acclaimed poet and fade from the heat of the day, but already disappeared. In fact, you won’t find him critic suffered a massive heart attack and hunchback bees in pirate pants and with in the current Norton Anthology of Poetry, fell silent. peg-leg/ which leads me to cast suspicion on the en- When I think of the state of American hooks have found and are boarding them.” tire idea of anthologies. Who, one must ask, poetry, I often think of John Ciardi, and decides which poets are included in college when I think of what is needed to reclaim This is careful observation, a literal im- anthologies, and which are shuffled off into this art from the flotsam and jetsam of age transformed by an intense imaginative obscurity? postmodern culture, I think of this urbane power. It is the focus of his attention on Why has Ciardi fallen off the radar and erudite mid-century poet. a single, often commonplace subject, that screen? Why is he no longer celebrated as Author of 24 full-length books of po- makes Ciardi a great poet. He forces you to one of our great poets? Is it simply a matter ems, 14 books of verse for chil- of changing tastes, or is it a result dren, translations of Dante’s Di- of something else emerging in our vine Comedy, hundreds of essays, culture, a culture that seems tem- book reviews, and numerous other peramentally unable to preserve publications, Ciardi was perhaps tradition and unwilling to honor an our best champion for an intel- older aesthetic? ligent, purposeful, and moral po- I would suggest that this is etry. Though he fell out of fashion symptomatic of even greater dis- by the late 1960s, eclipsed by the connections between American beat poets, confessional poets, the poets and a general audience for Black Mountain poets, and adher- poetry. ents of other schools of poetry, he It is supremely ironic that at a nonetheless remains a lighthouse time when more people are writing for later poets like and poems, when more call themselves Brad Leithauser, whose defense of poets, and when more publishing formalism in the 1980s strained to break look again at something you thought you opportunities are available to them, that the calcified bones of university-sanctioned knew, and his imagination allows you to see the general readership for poetry has all but writing programs. the world with fresh sensibilities. disappeared. Ciardi had wished for a larger Ciardi once remarked, “Modern art is A lesser poet, or one who has turned his audience for poetry and he did much to what happens when painters stop look- imagination inward, could never give us the advance its presence in American life, but ing at girls and persuade themselves that delight of seeing the world as if for the first he would not have wanted to witness the they have a better idea.” The same could be time. It is this kind of poetry that we des- paradoxical situation that Gioia described said about later generations of poets who perately need. in his 1992 book Can Poetry Matter? stopped looking at the phenomenological Ciardi, along with and “Decades of public and private funding world and focused their attention on ab- other poets born in the 1910s and ‘20s, have created a large professional class for straction, symbolism, and surrealism, mak- forged a vigorous, muscular American po- the production and reception of new poet- ing even language itself the subject of their etry in the 1950s and ‘60s. While, Lowell ry comprising legions of teachers, graduate work. plunged headlong into free verse with Life students, editors, publishers, and admin- Ciardi would have none of that. He Studies in 1959, Ciardi kept to a supple istrators,” Gioia writes. “Based mostly in kept his eye on the world around him and formalism that seemed better suited to his universities, these groups have gradually the thousand small things that most of us temperament. He remains best known for become the primary audience for contem- take for granted. And, in the final analyis, How Does a Poem Mean? (1959), which porary verse. Consequently, the energy of poetry should do exactly that, giving the became a vital handbook for an emerging American poetry, which was once directed world back to readers who have lost touch generation of poets in the 60s-70s. outward, is now increasingly focused in- with it. Ciardi is not easily categorized under ward.. . . Not long ago, ‘only poets read po- In “Bees and Morning Glories,” from any school of poetry. He was, however, the etry’ was meant as damning criticism. Now 1964, the poet looks at bees swarming a consummate craftsmen, honing his art like it is a proven marketing strategy.” group of fading plants. His description is the edge of a fine sword. He remained a See Ciardi, page 8. Page 7 CAMPUS DIGEST APRIL 2013 Ciardi Continued from page 7. Chue Lee: A Real Class Act

Ciardi abandoned a university teach- ing career early on and pursued poetry full-time. He adhered to a meticulous and measured sensibility and remained a fierce critic of mediocrity. He unleashed his hell- fire criticism on those who could publish poems because of their own notoriety than through any real skill. In his day, it was . Today it would be Jewel or any number of singers who be- lieve that because they can rhyme words together they can write worthy poetry. If American poetry is to ever recapture the attention of readers who do not write poems themselves, then poets need to re- turn to a more bohemian, anti-establish- ment mindset. Today’s young poets who are learning their craft will need to get out of their comfortable college environment and move into the real world of hard-fought victories and heartbreaking defeats. They’ll have to develop a sense of their own unique voice. In other words, they should spend their formative poetic years experiencing life alone, isolated from fad and fashion, depending on their own intuition and their own creative compass. At the end of the day, they’ll have to settle for a quiet space and that prolonged struggle to arrive at clarity. And they’ll have to write hundreds of bad poems, for each one will teach a lesson for the next. Most importantly, the’ll have to learn to please no one but themselves. I’m convinced that if our poets would denounce the intelligibility that defines contemporary poetry, that if they practice an American idiom, and if they approach the world with wonder rather than catalog the arcane workings of their own psyches, then readers would return to them. Geology Continued from page 4. to showcase undergraduate research at the Photo by Robin Shepard Community College level. This presenta- Congratulations to Chue Lee, Merced College’s 2013 ‘Classified Employee of tion is also an excellent chance for physi- the Year.’ Chue is known around campus as being ‘always dependable, smiling, cal science students to attend a professional friendly, a hard worker, and very dedicated to his job.’ Congratulations on a job conference, and see the inner workings of well done also go to our 1st Runner Up Delia Esquivel and 2nd Runner Up Dolores the scientific publication process. Ross.

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