Yet another excuse to eat

After caterer J.C. Hillman let me shoot her picture today with the biggest cinnamon twist in the civilized world, she insisted I take it.
She was feeling generous because she was celebrating the opening of her new business, "The Chuckwagon," right here in the Student Services building on the Lake Havasu City campus.
The rest of us had reason to celebrate, too. Now we can purchase and eat real food made when ordered by a human without driving somewhere in an automobile whose interior temperature is 130 degrees. Woopee!
The opening of The Chuckwagon is momentous for more reasons than because it is convenient for people like me. Being able to buy food on campus and eat it with your classmates and friends - or while spending quality time with a textbook - is part of the college experience that our students have been missing out on.
As an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, I ate every day - and I mean every day - in the student union building. I kept eating there even after I graduated and got a job on campus. The SUB, as it was called, was my big, echoy home away from home (I also slept, studied and watched art films there) and the ladies who made that fantastic New Mexican food were my surrogate aunts.
So, yeah, food on campus is a big deal. Bon appetit.

A learning moment

I went over to the Physical Therapist Assistant program lab today to take some photos of a lab in which students were learning techniques for evaluating patients with dizziness and balance disorders, and I suddenly found myself part of the lesson.
It turned out that due to a condition I experienced years ago, my right eye behaves in the very way these techniques are designed to provoke. Instead of the students practicing on each other and probably not seeing anything strange because they don't dizziness or balance disorders, they got to see that characteristic jittery eye action for real in me.
The students gathered around eargerly, oohing and aahing as guest lecturer Liz Briere, a vestibular rehab specialist at Kingman Regional Medical Center, went through a series of examinations that demonstrated the little hitch in my right eye. Other examinations indicated I probably don't have more serious issues with my central nervous system. Good to know.

The absolutely last final ultimate drop-dead deadline - for real this time

This is it, the absolute last day to register for fall classes - and we're not kidding this time. Except for second session, 8-week and community outreach classes. You can still sign up for those. Oh well.
Even so, with drop-add over, maybe our Student Services department can stop looking like a bad day at the DMV and I'll have a chance to meet some of the folks who have effectively been chained to their desks since I started working at Mohave Community College.
All this is not a complaint. We're in the student business, and we want students. But that doesn't mean we all won't enjoy the ebb tide for a while.
On the other hand, when crunch time ends, that's when I get busy, "hitting the streets" so to speak - the public library, local employers, the unemployment office, the mall - to bring to the people the good word of what MCC can do for them and their futures.
If you don't want to wait until you bump into me around town, give me a call (928-505-3393) or e-mail me (dparker@mohave.edu).

Foot sore

My feet are killing me. I've spent much of today off campus selling my wares, so the speak, at a couple gatherings of Lake Havasu City business people. My wares, in this case, are goodwill and greater educational opportunities for the employees of everything from restaurants to utility companies.
Luckily for me, these days education isn't a hard sell. It's eye-opening to hear from businesses as well as from potential students what workers' educational needs are in the real world. At a business expo put on by our city's Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the local telephone company told me its technicians need to learn basic computer troubleshooting and repair because more and more they're going into customers' homes to install high-speed Internet.
The possibilities for all parties are exciting. The worker gets the opportunty to expand his knowledge base, the employer gets a more well rounded employee and the college gets what it values most -- a student.

Back in business

This is my first first-week-of-classes at Mohave Community College, and I've found myself getting excited about seeing classrooms full of students engaged in the business we do here: teaching and learning. It's as if the old MCC battleship has been in dry dock these last few weeks and finally it's out at sea again, steaming along.
Of course, the voyage so far hasn't been without its rough spots. A few students encountered locked classrooms or came to school on the wrong night. But that's what the "Friendly Teams" are here for, to smooth out the inevitable rocky patches these first few days.
My Friendly Team shift before the start of 5:30 p.m. classes last night was pleasantly uneventful. I was impressed to see that most of the students I encountered not only knew where they were going, they were striding confidently toward their classrooms with a spring in their step. But they thanked me anyway for offering to help.
My pleasure.

Artfully done

The Lake Havasu City campus just got a little more stimulating.
Today, local artist Janet McIntrye installed her show of 40 abstract "assemblages" in The Gallery here on campus. She calls it "Wall Jewelry," and much of it is jewel-like with subtle, sparkling patinas.
The installation is the first of six planned art shows that will grace the campus this school year. This campus is lucky to have such prime real estate devoted to the arts.
I had a great time just watching the installation process. It took me back to my childhood when my mother, a fiber artist, was often involved in putting together gallery shows and larger art exhibits. I miss that milieu.
Until today, the drab, white gallery stood empty except for a few partitions and pedestals waiting for the chance to display art. It was a little sad, like an empty house.
Now that Janet's artworks are in place, skillfully arranged by local artist and sometimes MCC student Greg Heil, the transformation is astonishing.
For me, having the chance to enrich the campus with events like this -- this is the fun part.

Calm before the storm, but in a good way

Fall classes begin Monday, and as this week comes to an end the campus is almost eerily quiet. I've become accustomed to the bustle and urgency of the open registration period, which became more bustling and urgent as Aug. 17 got closer.
But I know the silence of our campus two minutes before closing time on the Friday before the beginning of classes is deceptive. Next week will be like a volcano erupting as more than a thousand students begin classes and registration -- still more urgently -- continues through drop/add week.
I'll be taking part in the happy madness by serving on a couple shifts on our campus' "Friendly Teams." Those are the little groups of faculty and staff who will be stragically stationed around campus looking for that lost look, that uncetain gaze.
Anyone who walks onto this campus next week who appears confused or uncertain better be prepared: we're gonna get friendly on them.

A new beginning

Sometimes it seems like everyone who visits this campus sooner or later walks by my office door. I've seen every variety of student -- the 17-year-old kid with a hank of blond hair flopping over his eyes (he recently completed his GED) -- the young mom with a toddler in tow and an arm-load of anatomy textbooks.
The greatest thing is when I see a face I recognize from my weekly visits to our local unemployment office.
It's not easy to face the fact you have to find a new career when you're 30 or 40 or 50. As friendly as I think Mohave Community College is, I know it's not easy to walk into that admission's office and submit yourself to a college placement test decades after high school.
It takes a lot of courage and a lot of perseverance.
But I also know the payoff in the form of a better career and a more promising livelihood is waiting from them on the other side of their hard work.
I saw one of those students this week as he was waiting to see his counselor with REPAC, which assists dislocated workers to get the education and training they need to start new careers. I asked him how everything was going and he reported he was registered for a full load of classes at MCC.
"I'm nervous. Now I have to study," he said.
"You'll do fine," I said.