All posts by Observer Staff

Campus Life, Features

NECC Bake Sales

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NECC students, staff and faculty continue to show support for the community. In the spirit of Halloween, student organizations held bake sales on both the Lawrence and Haverhill campuses last week to raise money for charity.

The Community Outreach Group hosted their semi-annual bake sale in the Spurk lobby with proceeds going to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “We typically raise between $200 and $300 each time we have a bake sale,” said COG representative Lisa Pasho.

COG will be hosting their Winter Wonderland bake sale on Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the same location.

“We’re still figuring out who the money will go to,” said Pasho.

COG meets every Monday from noon to 1 p.m. in room C116 on the Haverhill campus and invites all students who would like to get involved in helping the community.

The Clinical Laboratory Sciences Club, along with faculty advisors Brenda Salinas and Stacy Ayotte, raised funds for the Bread and Roses Soup Kitchen during a double bake sale in the iHealth and Dimitry buildings on the Lawrence campus.

In addition to hosting a blood drive at Holy Family Hospital on Nov. 17 and 19, the CLSC will be conducting a food drive to benefit Bread and Roses and will place receptacles for non-perishable food items on both campuses through Nov. 20.

Features

Adjunct Professors Receive Little Benefits

 

In Massachusetts, the number of full time employees is 1,400 statewide. Part-timers? 5,200 statewide. Adjunct professors teach about two-thirds of the classes taught at the state’s 15 community colleges. They are part-time employees, paid per class. They receive none of the same benefits as full-time employees, such as healthcare and retirement plans, for example.

 

Joe LeBlanc is a full-time professor at NECC and president of the Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC). This union represents both the full time and adjunct professors, as well as other professional staff and faculty, at all 15 community colleges in the state.

 

LeBlanc said, “We have sued the state for that issue (medical coverage) and we did not win that suit. I think all health care ought to be free. A lot of it is driven by profit.” State law classifies the adjuncts as contract employees; therefore, the state is not required to provide them with health insurance. “I don’t agree with the law, but we have been working to change that law and the universal health care law we have now helped to an extent. They should have the same pension that I have. There could be some friction there between those that are purely part time, and they teach at two, three, four institutions just to pay the rent…”

 

“The percentage of adjuncts is pretty high. Twenty adjuncts could be four full time instructors. I would like to see more hope for those who want/need a permanent full time job with benefits,” Developmental Studies Adjunct Professor, Christopher Corcoran, said.

 

The practice of using adjuncts began as a way to allow working professionals to apply their knowledge in the classroom, but as the number of students increased, the number of full time teachers remained stagnant. The additional caseload was passed on to these part time employees.

 

“Right now it’s shrinking a bit, because our enrollments are dropping,” said LeBlanc. “Historically, during great times, everybody has work.”

 

Academic Preparation Adjunct, Kelly Boylan, adds that job security is often difficult because an adjunct’s course load is determined by student enrollment. “I strive to have a strong relationship with my students and put their needs first. As an adjunct, I don’t have an office, but I make myself available to my students.”

 

The result of this trend is that many adjunct professors are teaching a full caseload, sometimes even teaching multiple classes at multiple campuses.

 

“What’s even worse is the fact that ‘Jane Smith’ can work an entire career adjuncting and she will not have a pension and she does not have any way to retire unless she has a source of outside income or she inherits cash. If you choose to toil away in the trenches as an adjunct for your entire career (you) cannot afford to retire,” said LeBlanc.  

 

Corcoran explains the give-and-take of being an adjunct by showing what happens when classes get cancelled: “If we don’t continually teach, in time we lose certain benefits and our pay-scale is reduced. But we don’t get offered courses continually and consistently. So most of us need to have other jobs and often, when we do get offered courses, those courses conflict with those other jobs. Also, I am not sure of how it works with the seniority of adjuncts and who gets offered courses first. One colleague has taught eight adjunct courses!”

 

An Inside Higher Ed article by Colleen Flaherty earlier this year said “A common refrain from adjunct professors who get relatively low pay and little institutional support is that their working conditions are students’ learning conditions. But many colleges and universities continue to ignore that message and rely on part-time faculty to deliver the majority of instruction. A new paper is calling out those institutions for their lack of attention to faculty career designs and is demanding meaningful, collaborative discussions to address what it calls an existential threat to American higher education.”

 

“Part-time adjuncts who want full-time jobs should have more full-time opportunities available to them. Non-academic work could be combined with our  teaching duties to create full-time positions with contracts and healthcare. We don’t always have to be tenure-track professors with a private office. Just a full-time job would be nice. Yes, maybe we would be considered over-qualified to do clerical work, but I doubt we would turn it down in order to get a full-time, permanent, benefitted position. We have paid our dues!” said Corcoran.

 

Fairness for adjunct professors has become a hot-button issue between state lawmakers and advocates for change; specifically, The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) and the Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC).

 

Jerome Fallon, Adjunct in Global Studies, said, “You only convene for 16 classes maximum so it is vital to get to know your students quickly. Reach people immediately on a personal and respectful level from the beginning. For me, it is not about me instructing the student  it is about us finding a way to succeed as a two person team. With 30 or so students, that’s 30 teams you need to try to create. It’s time consuming and requires effort but it also portrays to the student that you are committed.”

 

“The disadvantage is not getting classes that work with your other jobs, inconsistency with course availability, never getting to teach those courses that you love and are actually better suited for, losing the money we rely on, and the constant wonder if you will always be adjunct. But a big disadvantage to me is when students ask me at the end of the semester and even years later ‘What courses are you teaching next semester? What else can I take with you?’ It is sad that I can never answer them, and it breaks my heart,” said Corcoran.

 

“I think there are varied types of adjuncts so they cannot be stereotyped as one group. There are those who want to be involved in the school and students and those who just want to teach a course without further interaction. Each person has their own schedule and style of interaction,” said Mark Beaudry, an adjunct for the Department of Behavioral Sciences.

 

Fallon said, “I love being around the academic atmosphere. I enjoy the fact that people are trying to improve themselves through education and am genuinely grateful to be part of that process. A disadvantage is that I do not get to do it enough. I have decades of industry experience to share and would love to find other avenues besides the classroom to make that happen. With the help of the department staff, I’m starting to make some progress.”

 

Another glaring difference for an adjunct professor is their lack of accessibility for students who may be seeking extra help. Full time professors also serve as advisers and they have the opportunity to develop a bond with students. The MTA website states that, “Higher ed faculty members see this as a significant issue because establishing such connections can contribute to long-term success — and at times may determine whether a student remains in school.”

 

Angel Baez, a 20 year old Liberal Arts Major, said,  “Limited office hours hurt students ability to flourish and get the help they need to do so. A lot of adjunct professors have a lengthy commute, and therefore limits their time on campus. Which in turn reduces or eliminates their office hours due to the excessive inconvenience.”

 

Technology is a definite aid to adjuncts with little office time. Corcoran said, “I do believe adjuncts are able to give a more personal level of detail because we simply have less students. I feel I can get closer to them because I can spend more time with each one in and out of the classroom, can get to know them, their purpose, goals and reason for being there and how that relates to the course I am teaching. I can answer emails with more detail, and discuss with them in person before and after class with a little more ease. As a core subject instructor, I simply have more time to explain where my course falls in the real world, their formal education, and why it is so important to finish it. Even if they hate every minute of it.”

 

“Holding office hours is a little difficult when I have to travel between the two campuses with only a short amount of time between classes. I often will arrive before class when possible or stay later when necessary.” said Boylan.

 

“I feel that adjuncts have much passion about their discipline and share their entire life experience with students, which provides a true global perspective. So, they should be compensated based on the education, experience and creative development skills that they bring to the classroom. Because I bring international experience and a theoretical perspective to the classroom, students have an appreciation for the real concepts being taught,” said Beaudry.

 

“I am just as much a student in my classroom as the students are (but) in different ways. It’s a cliche, but I do learn a lot from them,” said Corcoran. “My role is to facilitate the interchange of ideas, and make them comfortable in doing so and to make them understand the value in those ideas and how to apply them in the outside world.

 

All of this is not to say that college campuses are the only place where employees are exploited. On the contrary, there are quite a few industries that rely on sub-contractors to do much of the work, but the inequality between the adjunct professors and the full-time, union protected faculty is undeniable and is likely to remain that status quo for the foreseeable future.

 

In 2009, the MTA, the MCCC and five professors, including NECC professor Patrick Lochelt, filed suit against the state seeking health insurance coverage for adjunct professors, but they were unsuccessful. Health insurance costs are soaring throughout the country but it is particularly noteworthy in Massachusetts, where health insurance is mandatory. This forces the adjunct professors to make hard budgeting decisions that can negatively impact their quality of life.

 

Fallon said, “Having access to healthcare would be great, but it does not look like it is going to happen.  I know the union is working diligently on behalf of all faculty and I confess to not knowing as much as I should about the negotiations. It’s probably best that I do not comment on things I do not know anything about, unlike some presidential candidates.”

 

“Healthcare is a nightmare. But adjuncts do have an office! I call it the ‘Dorm-Office,’ as it is like a quad in that it has many desks. No parties though. Or none that I have been invited to,” Corcoran said. “I have often said that if we really figured out our true hourly wage, we would be better off at Walmart with healthcare and a set schedule. I think the hardest part is coming to the realization that it is what it is, and will probably always be so.”

 

According to Fallon, one improvement might be to have additional training options available for IT topics for adjuncts. “I get great support when I call in to the tech groups, but it would be ideal if there was someone there at night who I could visit to learn the nuances.” said Fallon.

 

“They (the part-time instructors) are going to get a 4 percent raise in January. It’s up to the college to pay that 4 percent raise, but I’ll also say that the part-time instructors here are largely a cash cow in that you only have to have eight or nine in a class to pay the paycheck of that instructor,” LeBlanc said.

 

He said that he would like to think that there isn’t any friction between the full and part timers, but that they live a precarious life where they can never really guarantee what their income will be, because when budgets are cut, the adjunct contracts are the first to go.

 

“These are a couple of points of great shame, I think. This state, with its reputation of having great higher ed, has this underclass of workers that they choose to exploit and it needs to end,” said LeBlanc.

Features

Seasonal Depression

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With half of the fall semester gone and winter fast approaching, NECC students may find the “winter blues” hard to avoid.

According to the American Psychological Association, Seasonal Affective Disorder is estimated to affect ten million Americans and is more common in women. SAD usually starts to set in around daylight savings time and continues until spring. The decrease in daylight can cause a wide range of symptoms that lead to a depressed mood.

Also, spending more time indoors can bring on feelings of boredom, agitation in relationships and feelings of hopelessness. Unfortunately, in severe cases of SAD, the affected individual can have thoughts of suicide.

Jetting off to a tropical locale would be a surefire way to ease symptoms of SAD. Of course, with the cost of living and tuition on a constant rise, college students have to rely on more practical regimens for keeping their spirits up.

“Tanning salon, all year for some vitamin D,” said NECC student Rhiannon Hardy. “I look better and it increases my mood.”

Psychology Today suggests that spending time with friends and family is crucial to one’s emotional well-being. Even snuggling with your dog or cat can help ease depression.

“I like dressing my cats in costumes and posting the pics on Facebook,” said Melissa Dow of Amesbury.

Although these methods have been proven to help in low to moderate cases of SAD. However, severe symptoms may be harder to treat without the use of therapy or medications.

Students who wish to seek professional help with SAD are encouraged to visit NECC’s Counseling Services office for assistance: on the Haverhill Campus, Room D117 in the Sports and Fitness Center; on the Lawrence Campus, Room L115 in the John R. Dimitry Building.

 

Uncategorized

Starfish Update

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NECC is one step closer to naming the mascot of the Early Success Starfish Program. After weeks of collecting submissions for the Name the Starfish contest, the Student Success Center sent out an email asking that each student cast their vote between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3 for one of the six finalists. The finalists were:

  • Dazzle
  • Stellar
  • Jefferson
  • Sparkle
  • Journey
  • Johnny Blue Fins

Be sure to check the Observer’s Nov. 18 issue to find out who won the contest and received a bag of prizes and gift cards.

Campus Life, Sports

Chris Nowinski Speaks at NECC

 
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On Oct. 21 in the Hartleb Technology Center, Christopher Nowinski, a former Harvard football player, pro wrestler, NFLPA advisor and author, spoke to about 100 people about the severity of concussions and head injuries.

Nowinski, author of the book “Head Games” and founder of the Concussion Foundation, handed out pamphlets and sheets on how to prevent head injuries. Different sheets were prepared for parents, coaches and athletes, filled with the actual definition of a concussion, symptoms of a concussion, and what to do in the event of a concussion.

Head injuries and concussions hit home with Nowinski because he suffered a severe concussion that put him out of sports forever.

Concussions in professional sports have been a hot-button topic for the past few years, more specifically in the NFL and the NHL. The fast, hard-hitting games put all players at risk of a career-ending injury. These concussions in the long term can also lead to death or suicide.

In 2012, longtime NFL linebacker Junior Seau succumbed to his long-term brain injury and took his own life, shooting himself in the chest. Seau suffered a type of chronic brain damage known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This type of brain damage has been found in other deceased NFL players.

Nowinski now goes around the country speaking to different groups, talking about the importance of concussion education.

The “Team Up” program gives training sessions to educators and coaches, who can then teach the lessons locally.

“It became a concerning thing for me, which I found educational, because this year alone I’ve had 2 kids with concussions,” said Darren Stratton, the coach of the NECC basketball team. Stratton brought his whole team to the presentation so they could learn about the severity of head injuries as well.

“I think Chris and his department are doing an excellent job, presenting and making awareness about it,” Stratton said.

“Heads Up” is an extension of the Concussion Foundation specially made for youth athletes, coaches, and parents. It highlights that concussions can happen at any age and can affect you for the rest of your life if not treated properly.

Jack Roy, a coach in the Haverhill Junior Football League, was in the crowd and related the presentation to his youth football players.

“It is extremely important for coaches at all levels to understand what is at stake here, the kids’ safety and overall health. We, as coaches, are on the front lines and must take charge in educating the players and the parents. This is a serious issue that must be dealt with.”

Roy also enjoyed Nowinski’s speech.

“He did a great job. I wish we could have had another hour or two more to discuss his programs and the research. Who better to talk about this issue than someone with his experience?” Roy said.

Katherine Regus was critiquing Nowinski’s presentation for her Business Communications class and was impressed.

“I have to say that I really liked it, he was direct and he went straight to the point,” Regus said. “He engaged with the audience very well trying to ask questions related to situations that involved the athletes that were sitting there.”

Chris Nowinski’s presentation was the first of four STEM Series presentations at NECC.

To find out more on brain injuries and Nowinski, visit www.ConcussionFoundation.org.

Sports

Knights Enthusiastic for Upcoming Season

 

The season for the NECC Knights basketball squad is almost here. They just came back from a tournament in New York and New Jersey and are just about ready to take on the regular season on November 3 at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, N.H.

Before that though, the freshmen and sophomores on the team took on each other in an intersquad game on Oct. 29 to further their training for the upcoming season.

Before the game, Head Coach Darren Stratton talked about his team.

“I like our enthusiasm, I really like the group’s work ethic. They’re working extremely hard. The big concern for me is obviously rebounding,” Stratton said.

Stratton brought up rebounding because the Knights are an overall shorter team than most in the division.

For the intersquad game, Stratton coached the freshmen, who were wearing blue uniforms. Assistant Coach Joe Tardiff coached the sophomores, who sported the gray jerseys.

Early in the first quarter, it was apparent that the sophomores had more experience and chemistry than the freshman. Sophomores Jonathan Paulino and Kevin Brito made swift plays and had great communication on the court. Paulino and Matthew Jameson both scored multiple 3-pointers.

The sophomores continued to show experience on defense, holding back the freshman offense and making it hard for them to hit the net.

The Knights first home game is on Nov. 10, when they face Dean College. Admission to the event will be free.

Campus Life

The struggles of the photography industry

 

Lance Hidy, director of the Art Design & Photography Department at Northern Essex, says low enrollment is causing photography classes to be cancelled.

“I wish there was a way students could spread the word,” Hidy says. As someone who has always had a passion for the arts, I would love to be able to take more photography courses, if only they would fill.

Hidy’s background has led him to have a lifelong passion for the arts. “As a child, I learned reading through comic books,” he said. “I would look at the pictures and that’s how I would figure out the storyline.”

Because of this, he started to read more and more about photography, as well as watching Disney animated movies and television shows.

NECC offers six courses in photography, and can also help students obtain internship opportunities in the field. Some of the internships offered are a yearbook company where a student gets to edit photos, community theatre where they get to experience taking real headshots. Some are even paid! I think this is an amazing idea, because photography is such a hard field to get into. Not only do you get to experience the real world, but network and gain connections that can help your future in the industry.

NECC student Lissangy Rodriguez has had a passion for photography since her sophomore year of high school.

“I had an absolutely phenomenal instructor named Brian Trainor, who made me start to see the world as an opportunity for art,” she said. “My sophomore year of high school I had friends that were graduating and in the need of senior portraits. . . They were incredibly dismayed they had to pay $200 for their portraits, so I then offered to take their photos, which made me realize that this is my true calling.”

Since then, Rodriguez has started her own photography business. The biggest struggle of obtaining a business is defending her price; some people tend to undervalue the craft, which can make it difficult to make a living.

“This is a strange cultural norm that makes some people believe art is not as valuable as it really is,” she said. As someone who is an artist and working on obtaining a sturdy organization, it’s one of the hardest jobs to keep steady customers and compromise on a reason price.

Rodriguez has grown her company by social media and word of mouth.

“I absolutely love making (my customers) all feel great about themselves,” she said. “I try to make every photoshoot an experience.”

 

Editorial

Two-Party System Undermines Democracy

 

Jill_Stein
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Foundation
This year we have the largest, most diverse group of presidential candidates I’ve ever seen. They vary from uber-conservative to bleeding-heart liberal and fill the entire spectrum in between. It seems as if there are far too many to fit them all comfortably into the two-party system that we demand. I’m not sure why we limit ourselves to two parties, anyway. It seems like a flaw in our so-called democratic system that allows this limitation. How democratic can our election process be if it forces everyone to choose between one side and the other, when every issue has more than two sides and so many people feel that the truth and the solutions lie somewhere closer to the middle.

Bernie Sanders, who is an Independent senator, knew that he couldn’t go any further as an Independent. If he had any chance at being taken seriously, he needed to run for president on the democratic ticket. Jill Stein, on the other hand, has very similar ideas as Sanders, is the nominee for the Green Party. If you have never heard of Jill Stein or the Green Party, it’s because they receive absolutely no media coverage. Since Stein did not defer to the Democratic Party, she may as well not exist for all of the attention she has received in the news. I mean no offense to Sanders but he doesn’t fit very neatly into the Democratic box that we are used to. He even refers to himself as a democratic socialist, a risk nearly, but not quite, as big as if he had run as an independent in the first place.

It seems to me that regardless of what a candidate wants to call themselves, or what party they choose to run for, they should be given the chance to speak to the American people. In order to facilitate a true democracy, it falls upon the media to offer equal consideration to all candidates, ensuring that voters are truly educated about their options. For this reason, I have decided to dedicate a few lines of this issue introducing the NECC community to Jill Stein, and the Green Party.

Arts and Entertainment

Crimson Peak Review

 

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Photo courtesy of Legendary Pictures
Viewers who go into Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” expecting straightforward horror will be disappointed. This is not a horror movie in today’s sense of the word, filled with cheap jump scares, computer-generated ghouls and dying teenagers. This is a gothic romance in which most of the horrors happen offscreen — a tragedy of taboos that revels in melodrama and repressed emotion.

It takes place in the steam-powered world of the Industrial Revolution, of course, because what better time is there to set a movie about repression? Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) and her father, Carter (Tom Beaver) are visited by the Sharpe siblings, Thomas (Tom Hiddleston) and Lucille (Jessica Chastain). Thomas has come all the way from Britain, hoping to earn Carter’s investment in his invention. He’s unconvinced, so Thomas remains in town… just long enough to fall in love with Edith.

Oh, and Edith keeps getting a mysterious warning from her mother — who, by the way, is a ghost — to “beware of Crimson Peak.” So naturally, when she marries Thomas and heads to England at his side, where does he happen to live?

If you figured that brain-buster out, you’ll have no trouble solving the rest of the mysteries well before the movie does. But don’t despair, that’s part of the fun: del Toro has created a magical Hammer Horror tribute, complete with operatic emotion, iris wipes and a spectacular manor.

This may be one of the most beautiful and haunting movie sets ever constructed. The mansion’s foyer has a hole in the ceiling that lets autumn leaves — and later, snow — fall freely to the center of the room. Having been built on a clay pit, there are scarlet trails running down the walls. And the very architecture of the place is sometimes more creepy than the ghosts that inhabit it: spiky archways and a rickety elevator give plenty of chills.

In the end, though, it’s the big emotions that provide the major thrills. Edith finds more than she bargains for in the old house, and tension escalates to the breaking point. Wasikowska, Hiddleston and Chastain all contribute wonderfully to the melodrama, staying committed to their roles even through dialogue that borders on the ridiculous. One late scene, featuring Chastain slamming a kitchen implement down, is so gleefully absurd that it has to be seen to be believed. And that feeling carries through the rest of the movie, which is over-the-top in all the right ways.

Features

Smarthinking: Online Tutoring Services

 

Smarthinking is a free online tutoring service available to any student registered at NECC.  This service is not staffed by NECC tutors, but is actually a separate business which was purchased by the Tutoring Center.  There are over 2,500 certified expert tutors worldwide.

The service has been available at NECC since 2008 and is an effective way for online students or students with busy schedules to find academic support.  You don’t even need to register to access Smarthinking.  Simply log in with your NECC email and student ID number to get access.

The maximum time students can use Smarthinking for each semester is four hours.  This may not seem like a lot of time, but considering that most students use it for essay submissions, it actually lets students submit five essays per semester, each for a 45-minute charge.  If needed, you can contact the Tutoring Center when you run out of hours and they will assist you with finding the help that you need.

“In general, the students have been very satisfied with it,” said Lynne Nadeau, the Director of Tutoring Services.

The second most popular feature on the website after essay submission is the Drop-In Tutoring contact.  This allows students to chat with a tutor via “whiteboard” to get help on a specific subject.  Nadeau suggests that students go in prepared, knowing exactly what they need help with, in order to avoid using up excess time.

The tutoring is offered for a variety of subjects.  Algebra, nursing, biology, Spanish, and reading name just a few of the subjects Smarthinking offers tutoring for.  Accounting and sciences are among the most popular subjects.  Additionally, the website offers links for academic resources.  These provide study guides and tutorials for several subjects and don’t use up any of your allowed time.  You can also view archives of past study sessions to study for exams.

Overall, Nadeau said she has seen “quite an increase in students who use the services in the past couple years.”  She believes this to be a “generational thing,” as more students are enrolling in online classes and spend more time on computers in general.