Headlines

Says Who?

We were thrilled to find that more than 30 of you submitted guesses for the first-ever “Says Who?” mystery person contest, which appeared in the January 24 issue of the HCC Connection. The winner of that contest is John Donnellan, who correctly guessed that the mystery person interviewed by us was Criminal Justice Department Chair Monica Perez. John’s name was chosen from among the many correct guesses we received. He will get a free pass to one of the HCC culinary arts luncheons.

Check out the pictures of Monica – then and now – and then click here for the original clues. It’s so obvious, you are probably kicking yourself.

But don’t kick yourself too long. We have another mystery person for you to decipher. Please read the following interview and send your best guess to nmunoz@hcc.mass.eduby March 19. The contest winner will be announced in the March 21 HCC Connection.

This month’s challenge:

Are you a faculty, staff, or student? Staff

How long have you been associated with HCC? 10 years

If you were to enroll at HCC tomorrow, what would you major in? Mathematics. Because we’ve forgotten how to do the basics – how to add, subtract, read. Ask a kid to solve a problem now, they’ll take out a calculator. Ask them how to calculate a 15 percent tip, same thing. We need to emphasize the basics.

What is the best thing (book, magazine, fortune cookie, advertising circular, etc.) you’ve ever read?
“On Becoming a Leader” by Warren Bennis

What is your favorite song?
“Fly Me to the Moon” by Sinatra.

Favorite movie?
The Godfather.

If there was a movie about HCC, who would play your character?
Bill Murray.

If you were to go on a reality TV show, which one would you choose?
The Amazing Race. You have to be able to travel world-wide, and take on different cultural challenges. One time, when they were in Spain, you had to do a Tango with someone and be judged. Another time, in England, you had to drive a double-decker bus through an obstacle course.

When you were in grade school, what did you tell people you wanted to be when you grew up?
The president. It was kind of cool to be the president – they get to go on TV all the time and ride around in planes.

What is the worst advice you ever received?
It was from my high school English teacher. He said: “You shouldn’t go on to college,” and I said: “Well, you shouldn’t be teaching English.” (I now have masters in educational administration.)

What is your pet peeve?
People who don’t use directional signals. Drives me nuts.

What is your philosophy on life?
“ Enjoy the journey.”

At HCC, where are people most likely to run into you?
The Bartley Center.

What is the best thing about HCC?
The college provides opportunities for people to discover who they are and what they can be. And that’s not limited to students.

If you know someone who would make a good candidate for a future “Says Who?” column, feel free to send their name and contact information to nmunoz@hcc.mass.edu. It would help us immensely if you asked your candidate for their permission before sending us their name.

Sizeism is the topic for March 8 Campus Climate Discussion

When it comes to discrimination, we all may want to take a second look at our attitudes about size – height, girth, weight. That’s the idea behind a March 8 Campus Climate Discussion, which will take place in the cafeteria at 2:30 p.m. The second in a three-part discussion series sponsored by the Student Senate, this forum on sizeism is open only to members of the HCC community.

From the popular media to our own bathroom scales, we all have absorbed some attitudes about size. This discussion will give us all a chance to explore those ideas and discard the ones that are harmful to ourselves and others.

Some questions you might want to ponder:
What’s normal? What do we mean when we say too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short? Are fat people lazy? Are skinny people anorexic? Do all tall people play basketball? “Can I say ‘midget’?” “Can I say ‘fat’?” Is it okay to judge people for their size? Comment on their size? Make jokes about their size? Is it still okay to make fun of the fat kid on the playground; the skinny kid on the playground? How do we balance health and fitness issues with social constructions of normal? How do our standards of beauty impact our judgments about size?

Student Senate Secretary Kimberly Boyd says the Campus Climate Discussions series is designed to promote free speech and clear the air on campus.

“ It’s not that I respect every opinion that’s out there, because I don’t,” she said. “But I think it’s important that we respect people’s right to have an opinion.”

A third discussion, focusing on classism will be held on April 12. To find out more about this series, please email Boyd at hcccampusconversations@gmail.com.

One-Book Holyoke chooses "Night" by Elie Wiesel

From March 1 to May 1 HCC will join The Care Center and several other community-based organizations in sponsoring One-Book Holyoke, a community-wide promotion of literacy and social justice. Participants in this two-month project have committed to reading and discussing the book Night, a haunting memoir of the holocaust by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

You can join in this exciting effort simply by reading Night and discussing it with your friends, neighbors and co-workers. But you don’t have to go it alone. One-Book Holyoke can offer you a lot of great options:

March 6, 7 p.m., Lynch Middle School, Holyoke
Off the Page: Kick-off Reading and Celebration of One-Book Holyoke and Night, by Elie Wiesel

Local luminaries will help us kick-off One-Book Holyoke. Participants include Mayor Michael Sullivan, Lynch Middle School Principal Paul Hyry, National Yiddish Book Center Founder and Director Aaron Lansky, public school students, and students from Holyoke’s Adult Basic Education community.

March 21, 7 p.m. Holyoke Public Library
A Literary Perspective

The Friends of the Holyoke Public Library present will Rabbi Robert Sternberg, Director of the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center in Springfield, who will discuss Night from a literary and historical perspective.

March 29, 10:30 a.m. (location TBA)
Night: And the Questions of Evil, Suffering and Altruism

Presentation and discussion with Ervin Staub, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Founding Director of the Ph.D. Concentration in the Psychology of Peace and the Prevention of Violence.

April 24, 7 p.m., Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center, 1160 Dickinson St., Springfield
A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany 1933-1942

Herbert L. Roth will speak about his experience as a Jewish teenager in Nazi Germany.

March 20, 7 p.m. Kittredge Room 301, Holyoke Community College
Paper Clips (a movie)

One–Book Holyoke and the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival will host a viewing of Paper Clips, a documentary about the children of Whitwell, Tennessee Middle School who, as part of their study of the Holocaust, tried to collect 6 million paper clips representing the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

March 21 – April 18, 6:30 –8:30 p.m. HCC downtown classroom
A 1-credit book discussion course (Hum. 200) examining Night,

For more information contact the instructor, Deb Savage, at (413) 367-0134 or visit http://www.hcc.edu.

April 17, 7 p.m., Open Square, 1 Open Square Way, Holyoke
Enchanted Circle Theater

Enchanted Circle Theater presents a dramatic reading and discussion about Night featuring award-winning actors.

One-Book Holyoke is sponsored by the Holyoke Public Schools: Juntos Adult Basic Education Collaborative/HPS and Pathways to Family Success/HPS, The Care Center, Career Point, Nueva Esperanza, the Holyoke Public Library, the Friends of the Holyoke Public Library, Enchanted Circle Theater, and Holyoke Community College.

If you have questions about One-Book Holyoke or would like to help with promotion, sponsorship and/or activities, please contact: Tzivia Gover, One-Book Holyoke Coordinator: (413) 532-2900 ext. 103 or info@onebookholyoke.org

Of bikes and brothers

On August 4 and 5, HCC’s Director of Disability Services will join thousands of other committed volunteers in the 27th annual

Maureen Conroy

Pan-Mass Challenge. This popular 163-mile bike ride annually raises millions of dollars for life–saving cancer research and treatment at Dana Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund.

In the coming months, as she readies herself for this grueling physical challenge, Maureen will also be raising the $3,600 minimum pledge requested of all riders. The following are her personal reasons for making this journey.

Next month our family will celebrate my brother John's 50th birthday.

We’ll also be celebrating the work of dedicated researchers, doctors and caregivers who’ve made this birthday – and many others – possible.

An HCC graduate, John now works as the branch manager for Granger, Inc. and is an operations officer in the Coast Guard Reserves. He lives in New York with his college sweetheart, Sandra Longhi Conroy, and has three grown children, a pack of dogs, the best volleyball serve in the family, and the only piano among us. He is an artist, an athlete, and a man of high values.

More than anything, he is an absolute gem to this younger sister.

Thirty one years ago, at age 19, John lost his leg to cancer, but he didn’t lose his life. He is with us today in no small part because of the hard work of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

John's fiftieth year is the perfect occasion to pool all of my annual cancer fund contributions, and give back to Dana Farber in honor of my beloved brother. I will ride the Pan-Mass Challenge this August in John’s honor, not his memory.

CampusBriefs

Safezone training comes to HCC

March 3 is the deadline to sign up for a Safe Zone training, which will be held March 5, 1 to 3 p.m. This workshop is free and open to anyone who would like to respond more sensitively to the issues faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (GLBTQQ) people. You may register by sending your name, phone number and email to the Office of Academic Affairs.

Sponsored by the Council for Community, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Safe Zone workshop includes sections about language (helpful / hurtful / neutral), videotapes of HCC and local community members talking about their identification, and skits with suggestions about how to respond to negative situations in the classroom or elsewhere. Participants also receive a three-ring binder filled with articles, resource lists, and contact information for other organizations.

It is the responsibility of everyone (students, faculty, and staff) to ensure that HCC is an open and safe place for all.

The student body, faculty, and staff at HCC come from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. People here also have a wide range of lifestyles and intellectual ideas. As an institution of higher learning, we value and honor this diversity. Everyone on this campus and in our classrooms should feel safe to be who they are and to express their ideas openly.

Immigration is the subject of Taber Gallery exhibit

From March 5 to March 29, the Taber Gallery will present “…we all are in this strange country” an exhibit of photographs from the Wistariahurst Museum’s “Destination Holyoke” series.

These beautiful sepia tone photos and accompanying narratives tell the powerful story of the immigrants and migrants who built Holyoke.

The Taber Gallery is located in the second floor of the Donahue building (next to the library) and is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Diane Beers to headline second Authors@HCC series

The HCC community is invited to the Picknelly dining room (Frost 265), at 3 p.m. on March 8 for a book signing and presentation by history professor Diane L. Beers, the author of “For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States.”

Light refreshments will be served.

Beers combined her interests in social justice, animal rights, and environmentalism in this book, which chronicles the history of animal advocacy in America. The book is available for purchase at Holyoke’s Barnes & Noble, and at South Hadley’s Odyssey Books.

Beers’ appearance is the second in the Authors @ HCC series, which features published authors who work at the college.

Who gets to say "I do"?

On Wednesday March 7, 11 a.m. to noon, the HCC Queer/Straight Alliance will host an informational program in the Leslie Phillips Forum focusing on gay marriage.

Joe McCoy, a representative from MassEquality will speak about the difference between civil unions and gay marriage, as well as the status of gay marriage in Massachusetts. Also participating will be members of the HCC community who will share their experiences as legally married gay/lesbian people and as children of gay/lesbian parents.

Inclement weather policy clarified

Winter weather sometimes means HCC will delay or cancel classes/work so that necessary snow and ice clearance can take place. Recently, there have been some questions regarding how we should interpret a delayed opening and what we should do if classes are canceled. The following should answer most questions:

• If you believe that severe weather will prompt a delay or cancellation, you may call (413) 552-2600 ext. 1418, where you will hear a pre-recorded message telling you when the college will open (if at all). Also, because many of us start our workdays at slightly different times, the “delayed opening” notices that are run on the television will now give a definite time (instead of saying “two hour delay”).

• Missed days will be made up at the end of the academic year prior to the start of final examinations. This policy and updated college closing information will be posted on the HCC website.

• Classes or labs that start at the time of the delayed school opening or thereafter will be held as scheduled. Example: if HCC has delayed classes until 10 a.m. and you have a class starting at 10 a.m. and another at 11 a.m., both classes should meet as scheduled. Class scheduled for 9-9:50 a.m. should not meet.

• Classes or labs that have a starting time prior to the delayed school opening will begin at the time of school opening if there are 45 or more minutes remaining in the originally scheduled class period. Example: School opening delayed until 9 a.m. You have a class from 8-9:15 a.m. Class should not meet from 9-9:15 a.m. You have a laboratory from 8 a.m.-10:45 a.m. Laboratory should meet from 9-10:45 a.m.

HCC recognized for Gift of Opportunity campaign

The National Council for Marketing and Public Relations announced in February that it will recognize HCC ‘s marketing efforts with a Paragon Award during the organization’s March conference in La Jolla, California.

The Gift of Opportunity campaign successfully secured more than $5 million in gifts and commitments for HCC, making it one of the most successful fund raising efforts in Massachusetts community college history. The college will receive a gold, silver, or bronze award at the NCMPR conference dinner, March 21.

Cooperative Education is on the prowl

The Cooperative Education staff will visit classrooms in the next few weeks to provide information on how students can supplement their academic programs with work experience related to their field of study.

Employers want experienced candidates upon graduation. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable work experience as well as academic credit.

If you miss the classroom visits, stop by Kittredge 319 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to complete an application and discuss Cooperative Education opportunities.

Welcome new staff!!

The following folks have joined the HCC community in the last two weeks. Please extend your welcome to them.

Denise Salgado - senior staff assistant for the Upward Bound program
Richard Thibault - power plant operator
Evelyn Morales - bus driver
Kae Austin - bus driver
Deborah J. Orre - dean of Nursing Education.

HCC Connection is published every other Tuesday (or thereabouts) and is distributed to the campus community, and friends of the college, and local media.

To be added to our email distribution list, please email: Kimberly Wilson, kwilson@hcc.mass.edu
To submit campus event information for inclusion in HCC Connection, email Natalia Munoz, nmunoz@hcc.mass.eduwith details including date, time, location, cost if any, open to public or not, web links (if appropriate) and contact information (name, phone number, and email). Deadline: end of day Friday before publication.

Natalia Munoz
Assistant Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Holyoke Community College
Phone: (413) 552-2183 Fax: (413) 552-2479
cell: (413) 348-8515 (emergency)
nmunoz@hcc.mass.edunmunoz@hcc.mass.edu
Holyoke Community College is the Commonwealth’s oldest community college, serving almost 9,000 students annually in 82 associate degree options and 42 certificate programs, and over 4,000 in noncredit and workforce development courses. The college has the highest transfer rate of any community college statewide, holding articulation agreements with 27 colleges and universities. Recognized for its Honors Program, distance learning curriculum, learning communities, and service to students. HCC now serves as the site for the UMass Isenberg School of Management Professional MBA program.