This is the time of the year when many college freshmen are moving into their dorms or preparing for their first classes.Unfortunately, some will want to transfer to a different school by the end of the year.
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The president of the college where I teach took two emails from a faculty listserv conversation and quoted them in their entirety in his recent newsletter, called a "Skigram," and attempted to answer them, all without permission from the
It's astonishing how some people's manners take a dive while on vacation. Every shore town, and probably every location in the world which attracts tourists, suffers from problems caused by inconsiderate, sometimes even destructive, visitors. In South Jersey, we call such people 'shoobies.' Why would you want to be such a person?
It's been a long few months. Much has happened recently at the Harrisburg Area Community College (with the unfortunate acronym of HACC) that I could write about. Instead, I'm going to summarize the basics and point out what is most important about the recent decisions of our leaders here at HACC.
The recent controversies at Mount St. Mary's College are a good example of the way many college/university administrators are doing real damage to their institutions by trying to run them the way they would run a corporation, employing business practices like firing anyone who disagrees with management.
My previous essay here discussed attempts of administrators of colleges to muzzle employees and student media and the destructive effect of this on colleges, especially the one where I teach. Our administration's policies also have serious, destructive ramifications for a course I teach, News Writing and Reporting.
As a teacher of journalism as well as other writing classes, and an advisor of student newspapers at various colleges over the years, I have fought a number of battles with administrators over the rights of students to operate without censorship. Naively, I used to think that everyone would want a successful journalism program and student newspaper, but I have come to accept that many simply don’t if that success conflicts with what they think a positive image of the college should be.
Like so many other tourists, I drove through New England all the way to Amherst, Massachusetts, to see the colors of autumn, from evergreens to the deciduous yellows, some darker gold, bronze, various reds, even purple, or tan, or sometimes a dull brown. What is it about the fall foliage that draws so many of us to New England in October? The wooded areas stretched before me with their full, flagrant displays of pigments, fluttering naked in the October winds
Where I live, the best place for walking is the local cemetery. I have to climb a few hills to get to it, but once I’ve reached the top of the cemetery, the main road loops around in a large circle across a flat area. I can walk around the loop any number of times to cover a mile or more without straining my arthritic knees.
Recently, I overheard several of the staff members at a local fitness center discussing what they thought of teachers’ salaries. “The average salary of teachers when they retire at this school district is $60,000 a year!” one said with indignation. The others agreed that was outrageous. Someone else claimed the average salary of teachers in the U.S when they retired was $80,000. They all expressed outrage.
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Photos
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- Red Rock Canyon State Park
- Slightly Tame Big Horn Sheep in Nevada
- Hotel Del Coronado: where Frank L. Baum wrote parts of the Oz books
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- Borders: The Mojave Desert between California and Arizona
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