District gathers student ideas for future educational programming

By Dylan Burke

GROSSMONT COLLEGE—The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District periodically holds Educational Master Planning Forums to identify aspects of the two colleges that people like and to learn what students believe should be improved.

Thirteen students on Wednesday, Sept. 21, attended such a forum in Building 34, room 170, to discuss what Grossmont needs to do in the long run to make for a better school.

In a meeting with Chancellor Cindy L. Miles and Jerry Buckley, senior dean for research and planning, students were asked three questions: One, what is the going well at the colleges that we need to be sure we don’t lose? What works for you? Two, what would make it even better? Three, what else do you want us to know?

Michael Wais, a comparative literature student, said he felt Grossmont is an excellent school, but wishes that there was a location closer to him. While internet classes are okay, he said he would prefer more face-to-face interaction.

The consensus among the attendees was that Grossmont College has an excellent faculty and staff. “The staff gives a lot of attention to the individual student,” Wais said.

Of the 13 students, seven said they are studying at Grossmont for their third year; one student had been on campus four years; 10 students were working toward Associates of Art degrees, 12 students anticipated transferring to a 4- year institution; two students were working at full time jobs and four students had part time jobs.

The purpose of the event was to gather input concerning where Grossmont is headed for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years in the future.

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Burke is a student in Media Comm 132; he may be contacted at dylanb@gcsummit.com

Author Cris Mazza returns to S.D. County as Grossmont ‘Creative Writing’ speaker

GROSSMONT COLLEGE (Press Release)– Author Cris Mazza, a San Diego native whose writings have been reviewed nationwide, will be speaking Oct. 12 at Grossmont College as part of its Fall 2011 Semester Reading Series sponsored by the college English Department’s Creative Writing Program. The Oct. 12 event will be held at 12:30 p.m. in Building 26, Room 220, on the El Cajon campus. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Mazza,, who now lives in Chicago, is a professor and director of the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mazza’s writings discuss the psychological and emotional complexities of life, as well as how a region’s society and culture impact the human experience, including sexuality, family, authority and gender. Her most recent novel, published in January, is “Various Men Who Knew Us as Girls,” is a story about a woman whose life changes when she decides to rescue a teenage Mexican prostitute.

Mazza’s fiction has been reviewed numerous times in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, MS Magazine, Chicago Tribune Books, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Voice Literary Supplement and The San Francisco Review of Books. Among her other novels: “Homeland” (2004), about a woman and her elderly father grappling with a 30-year-old family tragedy while they also find themselves homeless, living in the canyons of suburban Southern California alongside migrant agricultural workers; “Indigenous/Growing Up Californian” (2003), featuring Mazza’s collection of personal essays; and, “Waterbaby” (2007), a novel about how local legends still live and grow in a seacoast town in Maine.

Mazza is among several featured speakers for Grossmont College’s Creative Writing Program’s Fall 2011 Semester Reading Series. For more information about the programs, visit http://www.grossmont.edu/english/creativewriting
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Preceding provided by Grossmont College’s Public Information Office

Want to transfer to UCSD? New program may provide that opportunity if you act soon

GROSSMONT COLLEGE –If you are interested in transferring to UCSD to complete your four-year studies, the Transfer Center on the Grossmont Center has a deal that you should look into immediately.

Mary Rider, the counselor and professor at the TRansfer Center in Building 58D, said that the 2012 UCSD Transfer Admission Guarantee requires students to achieve a 3.5 UC GPA by the end of fall 2011.  “However,” she added,  “local community  college students have an opportunity to participate in the UCSD 2011-2012  TAG-UniversityLink Region X Transition Program if they fulfill the  following requirements: Complete English 120, English 124 and one UC transferable math course by the end of fall 2011;  Achieve a 3.0 UC GPA by the end of fall 2011;  Complete the IGETC by the end of spring 2012;  Earn 60 + UC transferable units by the end of spring 2012.”

Students interested in this opportunity must take one (1) of  the following steps to participate in this UCSD transfer option:

1. Come  into the University Transfer Center (Modular Village, 58-D) to obtain the  TAG-ULink agreement form to submit to UCSD by September 30, 2011

2. Make an appointment with a counselor to obtain the TAG-ULink agreement form to submit  to UCSD by September 30, 2011

3. Email  mary.rider@gcccd.edu to obtain the  TAG-ULink agreement form to submit to UCSD by September 30,  2011

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Preceding material provided by the Grossmont College Transfer Center

Grossmont-Cuyamaca District selected for pilot program to prepare students for globalization

GROSSMONT COLLEGE  (Press Release)–  The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District is one of eight colleges and universities across the nation  —  and the only community college district — selected for an American Council on Education project to promote internationalization, diversity and multicultural education.

The three-year project, “At Home in the World: Educating for Global Connections and Local Commitments,” is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. The eight campuses were selected from among 54 applicants to explore ways to better prepare students for the impacts of globalization and to improve cultural communication skills among students, faculty and staff.

“We are honored to have been chosen for this exciting opportunity to expand the cultural competency of our students in this age of globalization,” said Cindy L. Miles, district chancellor. “The At Home in the World project will be a wonderful opportunity to interact with similar campus programs across the country serving our increasingly multicultural and multinational communities.”

Leaders from the district’s two colleges, Grossmont College in El Cajon and Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego, will meet with ACE staff and representatives of the other institutions at an opening conference Aug. 29 and 30 in Washington, D.C., to share programs and best practices. Regular consultations with ACE experts will follow.

Forum planned on college district’s master plan

Surplus computers, classroom furnishings to be auctioned online

GROSSMONT COLLEGE (Press Releases) — The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District will be conducting a public auction of surplus items that will be held online on Thursday, September 8, 2011.

To View: You may preview pictures of the items and auction details at McCormack Auction Company (http://www.mccormackauction.com/), beginning Monday, August 22, 2011. Once on the website, go to the “Auctions” tab where you will see the items for the District.

You may also see a list of items at the District website: (http://www.gcccd.edu/warehouse/GeneralSurplusProperty.asp) In addition, there will be on-site previews of all items available on Wednesday, September 7, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at both the Cuyamaca College and Grossmont College warehouses.

To Bid: You will be able to place your maximum bid when it is convenient for you (available 24 hours a day) up to two weeks prior to the actual auction. To participate in the auction, there will be a $200 authorization hold placed on your credit card before you may bid on items. You will be notified once all bidding is finalized.

The auction will include various items. Examples of the types of items typically included are: bookcases, cabinets, chairs, desks, file cabinets, computer equipment, printers/scanners/copiers, medical equipment plus 15 individual computer systems, and much more.

Some items are sold individually and some are sold by the pallet. ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

McCormack Auction Company (http://www.mccormackauction.com/) will conduct the auction. Details about the auction are posted on their website. There is also an opportunity to sign up for their mailing list, as they conduct auctions for numerous schools and businesses in the San Diego area.

All items purchased at an auction need to be picked up Friday September 9, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. following the event.

We invite businesses, as well as individuals, to participate in this public auction.

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Preceding provided by Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

English-language classes offered for Iraqi immigrants

RANCHO SAN DIEGO, California (Press Release) — A pilot program offering English-language classes to recent Iraqi immigrants began this week, the result of a partnership between the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District and St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral.

Two 3 ½  –week classes of 30 students each will be offered free of charge at facilities at the Rancho San Diego church, which primarily serves East County’s Chaldean community. One class will focus on preparing for community college, while students in the other class will learn basic language skills to help them enter the workforce.

The classes will meet from 10 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday in the church’s education center, except for the final week, when classes conclude Aug. 30.

The college district’s Continuing Education program developed the classes as a start toward addressing a major need for additional English as a second language (ESL) classes for the thousands of Iraqi immigrants who have made their new home in San Diego County.

“These new arrivals desperately want to learn English so they can get jobs and become a vital part of our community,” said Cindy L. Miles, chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. “This is an important first step in helping them get the education that they need.”

For 82 students a year, $1,000 scholarships

EL CAJON (Press Release) – East County’s two community colleges have raised almost $850,000 for the Bernard Osher Foundation scholarship fund that will forever provide awards of at least $1,000 to 82 students each year.

As a result of the three-year intensive fundraising campaign, 56 students at Grossmont College and 26 students at Cuyamaca College will be selected annually to receive an Osher scholarship. With the match from the Bernard Osher Foundation, the total value of the two college’s scholarship fund is more than $1.6 million.

In May 2008, California’s 112 community colleges were challenged to raise money for the scholarships, with a promise of a 50 percent match from the Osher Foundation for all of the donated funds. The San Francisco-based foundation also made an initial $25 million contribution to the fund.

Senators denounce ‘profiteering’ at private colleges

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) – Following Wednesday night’s PBS Frontline segment documenting the mistreatment of America’s veterans by some for-profit colleges, a group of Senators condemned the practices brought to light.  Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), along with Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tom Carper (D-DE) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), called for greater oversight of military education benefit dollars in order to protect our veterans and military personnel from abuses in the for-profit higher education industry.

The Frontline segment comes after a report released by Senator Harkin in December detailed the massive growth in military education benefits flowing into for-profit colleges.  Last year, $439 million went to the 15 publicly traded for-profit higher education companies, accounting for 25 percent of all Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.  A yearlong HELP Committee investigation of the for-profit education industry has revealed that at many schools more than half of students drop out within a year, with no evidence that military students are faring better.

“Frontline’s findings are deeply disturbing and only serve to underscore the findings of our investigation:  many of these subprime colleges are aggressively enrolling veterans and collecting their hard-earned education benefits with little concern for whether they succeed,” said Harkin.  “We need to step up oversight of military education benefits to ensure that our brave men and women in uniform receive a quality education.”

Bill would require Medicare to reject payments to uncertified imaging and radiation technicians

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) – U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, (R-Kentucky), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, on Thursday introduced legislation that would protect patients undergoing medical imaging procedures or radiation therapy by setting new education and certification standards for the technical medical professionals performing the imaging. Rep. Whitfield’s legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. John Barrow (D-Georgia) and a bipartisan group of 17 members of the House of Representatives.

The bill, known as the Consistency, Accuracy, Responsibility and Excellence (CARE) in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy Act, would ensure that a patient who undergoes a medical imaging or radiation therapy procedure paid for through Medicare has the services performed by a professional with appropriate education and competency assessment through certification. Further, Rep. Whitfield’s bill would ensure that taxpayer dollars are only being spent on those procedures performed by qualified individuals.