Monday December 10, 2012 [email protected] Gateway Community College Vol. IV Issue II Winter 2012 College Set to Host Neighbors-in-Need Holiday Dinner By Bonnie Fahy, Co-editor At this festive event, there also will be an activ- ity room with face painting. The college will also have Santa and Mrs. Claus there to hand out toys to all the children. The kids can have their photo taken for a keepsake. Every guest will receive a winter coat and the adults will receive a bag full of personal care items Dattco Bus Company is donating the buses and the services of their drivers. The college does as much as possible to make this a joyful and cheerful experience for all, at the same time plus protecting the participants’ safety and privacy. Dr. Kendrick and those involved feel the need and de- sire to become involved with our downtown neigh- bors. We will be working with Market New Haven and the Town Green Committee to get the word out about the event to help us with coats, toys and $10 gift cards for our teen attendees. An event like this takes a massive amount of fundraising and donations; the college would like to thank Chabaso Bakery for donating rolls and Elm City Market for donating trays of Mac and Cheese. If someone would like to make a contribution, he/ Today many people through no fault of their own she can send or bring a check payable to Gateway have fallen on difficult times and have to live in tem- Foundation marked “Holiday Dinner”; 100% of the porary housing or a shelter. On Friday evening, Dec funds are used for this celebration. James Buccini 14th Gateway Community College continues a 15-year and Susan Swirsky are the co-directors and will be tradition of helping. This event is as a way to give back happy to accept donations in office Room S427. to our community. It now has now become a tradition The Neighbor in Need a Holiday Dinner is an and provides those who find themselves living in tem- event that is not only uplifting to the community, porary housing or shelters during the holiday season but brings joy and an opportunity for the staff, their an enjoyable event that brightens up their season. Dr. families and students to participate in giving. Some Dorsey Kendrick, college President has since put her of the college staff and students say they look for- full support behind this happy occasion. This year the ward to coming to this celebration all year long and college will serve about 700 people a holiday dinner. love being involved. Dr. Dorsey Kendrick Closing Doors, Closing Minds By Anthony Mitrano Co-Editor Strong foundations are essential in life – education being no loop- The Connecticut General Assembly ignorantly decided to push SB hole. Without a solidified educational base, and basic skills, progres- 40, which was passed this summer, now known as PA 12-40. This bill sion of learning will be greatly hindered, tougher and likely to yield evokes more confusion than offering a solution. PA 12-40 was de- poor academic performance. Luckily an agglomeration of students signed as renovation of the developmental curriculum in college. It is has been able to avoid running into this problem because develop- intended to move students through pre-college courses more swiftly, mental courses enables a successful academic future. As of summer, allowing only one semester of remedial education. The bill is cutting that luck has died. The majority of students at Gateway Community funding for remedial education by about 7 million dollars, leaving only College, as well as the rest of Connecticut’s sister colleges and uni- versities, are in severe jeopardy. Continued on next page 2 COLLEGE EVENTS CALENDAR LETTERS TO THE GATEWAY THE GATEWAY GAZETTE GAZETTE EDITORS December 13 - Last Day of Classes Bonnie Fahy December 14-20 - Final Exams Letters-to-the-Editor should be sent to: Anthony Mitrano Mehgan Seltzer Dec 27 - Jan 16 - Winter Intersession The Gateway Gazette, Humanities January – Graduation Department. WRITERS January 25 - Start of Spring Classes Bonnie Fahy Please sign your letter and include a Gregory Feeley phone number so we can contact you Anthony Mitrano GATEWAY LIONS MEN’S BASKETBALL to confirm it’s really you who’s taken the Jennifer Oakley December 15 - @ Quinsigamond, 3:00pm Bob Paglia time and energy to write to us. Here’s December 19 - @ CCRI, 6:00pm Isaiah Paul to hearing from you. Tamara Vasquez GATEWAY LIONS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ART DIRECTOR Mehgan Seltzer December 15 - @ Quinsigamond, 1:00pm PHOTOGRAPHERS Allen Gales Hate cannot drive hate out; Anthony Mitrano Mehgan Seltzer Only love can do that. SPECIAL THANKS TO Jackie Hennessey Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. LOGO DESIGN Allen Gales HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT Professor Chet Schnepf, Chairman FACULTY ADVISOR Closing Doors, Closing Minds – continued Tom O’Neil _______________________________ $750,000 for every remedial student in the entire state. It also leaves COLLEGE’S EMERGENCY WEATHER the option for students to enter an “Intensive College Readiness” pro- CLOSING NUMBERS gram in hopes of accelerating students to a college level, or to take a STUDENTS: (203) 285-2049 semester of remedial courses. FACULTY: (203) 285-2222 The idea sounds revolutionary, and promising, but that is its extent into reality, it just “sounds” good. After removing the sugar-coating intentions of the bill, it is clear that it is going to encourage students way student and you’re ready to learn, so to jump straight into college ready courses without developing proper we owe it to you, the student, to help you skills to build on. The connotation of entering an “Intensive College learn” remarked Williams. Readiness” program is not only detouring to students, but it’s also Another interesting thought is still float- inadvertently an extra step. According to Institutional Research at ing in the air. This bill was almost entirely misleading complimented Gateway, over 40 percent of our students place into the lowest levels by almost no student awareness. The vast majority of students have of writing, and 89 percent of our student populous are in development not ever heard of the workings of PA 12-40, or when the bill was still math courses. Dr. Matthew Long, Director of Student Development, to be voted on in its infancy stages. The Board of Regents provided stated that, “It [PA 12-40] essentially doesn’t allow us to provide credit extremely limited information to students, essentially concealing the baring classes for the lowest level of developmental classes.” If over bill. On the other hand, Gateway’s student leaders and student lead- two fifths of our students need the lowest level of writing courses, but ers from the other 16 state schools spent countless hours fighting are only allowed one semester to catch up, then it is not a feasible against SB 40. However, the board remained apathetic to our stu- idea. In fact 21 percent of our entering students place into both the dent’s needs and concerns. Symphany Joseph, the current President lowest remedial math and English classes. A lot of necessary time is of Gateway’s Student Government Association and Student Advisory required to polish set skills; however, since these classes will no lon- Committee representative to the Board of Regents powerfully de- ger be available, students are going to be forced into situations where clared, “We drafted a letter that we tried to get out in the media and to they will not be prepared. the Board of Regents. What happened was they [Senator Beth Bye, In addition to the chaos of losing precious learning time, college who drafted the bill along with the Board of Regents] kept changing in- entry courses will also be impacted. Anne Williams, MBA, CPCU, formation, and facts about the bill, rendering us unaware, uninformed CEBS, and business professor at Gateway questioned, “If someone and ignored. We were misled on exactly when voting on the bill was. has done a remedial college course with the lowest grade possible It kept getting pushed up, with no notice. It is devastating and un- to pass, are they really college ready? [PA 12-40] will cause altering fair. It is going to hurt our students financially, and emotionally. It is entrance classes to include pre-college material with college material. going to hurt our school too by causing fewer students, and a higher This is known as embedding.” PA 12-40 has the potential to throw tuition. We were really ignored, and not taken seriously. We worked students who are not ready into college courses, while taking time really hard to have our voices heard and they weren’t. ” Kyle Rogers, away from students who do not require pre-college material. Embed- the Student Government Association’s Vice President, pointed out ding causes an entirely new and unanticipated stream of problems. the cold truth that, “Having a special school [or an “Intensive College Williams continued to illustrate that, “a large problem that embedding Readiness” program] is a deterrent for students coming directly out will not solve is the heterogeneous nature of the classroom.” How are of high school. The problem should be taken care of at a much lower teachers supposed to help students who are ready for college at the level.” higher end of the spectrum, while also attempting to transition stu- Educational standards are going to be both heightened and low- dents that were not prepared? Either way, both sides of students are ered affecting all students in an unacceptable manner. Gateway’s fac- at a significant loss rendering students at the higher end not properly ulty and staff are going to work hard to adjust the institution’s students prepared for higher levels of education, and students at the lower to drastic changes though.