August '25 News Blog
News briefs from the HCC campus and beyond
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DJ Bun Signs Off (for now)
Despite graduating from HCC in May, communications major Patrick Sweeney ’25 continued his weekly radio show on WCCH until Aug. 12, when, as his on-air alter ego, DJ Bun, he presented a special summer season finale. His typical Tuesday show, “Fun with DJ Bun,” runs an hour. For the finale, though, station manager Pat Labelle let Sweeney do a top 40 countdown, which lasted more than two. “My show is all ’80s music,” he said before going on the air for the finale. “This one will be ’80s music with some newer music as well.” Sweeney joined the college radio station in March after taking a podcasting class with Professor Tim Cochran. His parents introduced him to ’80s music, he said, so he grew up a big fan of artists like Bryan Adams, Journey, ABBA, the Go-Gos, the Beach Boys, and Bon Jovi. “Good beach music,” he said. “You can’t beat it.” As far as his radio alias goes, Sweeney said he’s been known as “Bun” to his family and friends all his life. “My parents thought I looked like a bunny when I was born,” he said, “so they gave me the nickname of Bun. As a Holyoke person, you know that everybody in Holyoke has a cool nickname.” Sweeney is moving on this fall to study communications, media and journalism at Western New England University, but hopes to resume his show at the station during winter break and again next summer and maintain his connections to HCC. “I’m already working here as a tutor in the Writing Center,” he said, “so I’m hoping to keep my active status, in case another opportunity opens up.” PHOTO: Patrick Sweeney, a.k.a, DJ Bun, outside the WCCH broadcast booth before his "Fun with DJ Bun" summer season finale show."
Rising Together
It seems fitting that alum Sheila Dion ’93 would be interested in HCC’s Thrive Center and Food Pantry. Dion is the founder and volunteer director of Erin's Angels, a nonprofit agency in central New York state that delivers free meals to hungry children. “Food is essential to growth, learning, and a bright future,” Dion said in an October 2024 HCC Spotlight interview. “It is more than sustenance. It is the foundation of health, happiness, and dreams. But, for too many kids, it is a daily struggle. I believe that every child deserves the opportunity to grow, learn, and thrive without the burden of hunger.” Earlier this month, Dion, who grew up in Springfield, stopped by the Thrive Center to talk to Thrive coordinator Ben Ostiguy and food pantry coordinator Elizabeth Eastman. She left impressed. “Returning to HCC and seeing the Thrive Center filled me with so much pride and gratitude,” Dion later wrote. “To know that my alma mater cares for students not only with education but also with food, school supplies and hygiene items shows the true heart of Western Mass. It really proves that when we lift each other up, we rise together.” PHOTO: Thrive coordinator Ben Ostiguy, left, food pantry coordinator Elizabeth Eastman, and Sheila Dion ‘93, Dion’s son John and her fiancé Dean, during an August visit to Thrive.
New Arrival
When asked where she would like to pose for a photograph to accompany a story about her recent HCC appointment, Katherine Douglas, the interim vice president of academic and student affairs, did not demur. “The HCC Library,” she announced. “I want to be near books. They still have books there, don’t they?” Indeed, they do. Fittingly, she stood next to stack of them arranged on a table in the library lobby under a placard that said, “New Arrivals.” Although Douglas started her interim post on August 4, this is not her first HCC go-round. She served as dean of social sciences from 2005 to 2008. After completing her doctorate, she took a position as vice president of academic affairs at Sussex Community College in New Jersey and was later hired as president of Corning Community College in upstate New York, from which she retired in 2019. “But I wasn’t really retired,” she said. Through a national registry, she was called back into service for a brief stint as interim president of Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., moving to South Hadley in 2021 after her term at Monroe concluded. In 2023, she joined the HCC Foundation Board of Directors, stepping down when offered the interim VP position. “The reason I considered it was, one, it was Holyoke Community College, which I knew, and two, because I live right across the river,” Douglas said. Although a lot of the people she worked with the first time have retired, there are still plenty of familiar faces, she said, including Carl Todd, coordinator of library services, who took a photo of Douglas back in the day for the HCC Library’s “Read” campaign, the framed poster of which she’s kept all these years and now sits on a bookcase behind her HCC office desk. PHOTO: Katherine Douglas, interim vice president of academic and student affairs, poses next to the New Arrivals table in the HCC Library.
HCC’s Super Heroine
If you know anything at all about HCC Police Chief Jacky Robles, you know she’s a huge fan of Wonder Woman. Her office is filled with images, photos, and other knick-knacks and tchotchkes celebrating the Amazonian demi-goddess of superhero lore – not to mention the large Wonder Woman tattoo she sports on her left arm. Since being sworn in last April as HCC’s new police chief – and the first Latina to hold that position – Robles has received a slew of recognitions, including a Commonwealh Heroine award from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. “Oh, my gosh, that was incredible. I couldn’t believe it,” she recently said. “Then I had to chuckle a bit, because, obviously, I’m a total fan of Wonder Woman, and it’s a heroine award, and Wonder Woman is a heroine.” She was invited to the State House for the awards presentation, where state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez from Springfield surprised her with an acknowledgment on the floor of the House and proclamations from both the House and Senate, to go along with a citation recognizing her as civil service ambassador for the Springfield Puerto Rican Day Parade. (And – spoiler alert: In October, she will be recognized with a “100 Women of Color” award from the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition.) The recognitions are exciting, she says, but she takes seriously the superhero credo, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and knows there are a lot of people looking to her for leadership. “I’m very humbled,” she said. “I don’t want to let anybody down, especially all the girls from my family. I’m happy and I’m proud, and I’m here, trying to make some moves, positive ones.” PHOTO: Police Chief Jacky Robles, in her HCC office.
