Observer Department: Editorial
I want words to be my superpower
put an editorial column in this section of the newspaper. In theory, it sounds like an easy thing to do. Just pick an interesting topic, discuss it with the staff and write up a few columns expressing the newspaper’s views on the subject. Simple, in theory. Reality, of course, is…
Letter: Police Academy
With All Due Respect In the last edition of the Observer, two separate articles were written about the nuisance created by the police academy now present at the Haverhill campus. The complaints centered around the supposed intimidating drills the recruits practice on the quad, the amount of parking spots taken…
Letter: Film Classes
Dear Editor, I am writing in response to your article titled, “Film Classes Are Struggling At NECC.” While it is true that we have faculty, but not equipment to run a film class, we do in fact have the faculty and the equipment to run video, film-based still photography, studio…
NECC Observer Honored
The NECC Observer recently learned that it was awarded an honorable mention in the 2014 New England College Newspaper of the Year contest. The award is bestowed by the New England Society of News Editors. The awards were handed out at NESNE’s 2014 spring conference at the New England Newspaper…
Two-Party System Undermines Democracy
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.…
Meta Toolkit
A news employee wears a lot of hats, especially on a small, student-run paper like this one. That can be a really good thing! It’s a great opportunity to learn a whole lot of valuable skills and acquire some very useful knowledge. To take the best possible advantage of that,…
Why it’s Important to Write Well
It's not always important for your writing to be clear. The thing that's important, for a journalist, is to know why, sometimes, it should be clear, and why sometimes it doesn't need to be -- because it really, really needs to be in a newspaper. The vast majority of people…
Veterans Association
Background: Through online research, I found that NECC is one of seven (out of a total of 15) Mass. community colleges (CC) without a private veterans area. The nearest CCs to NECC, North Shore CC and Middlesex CC, both have particularly large veterans area, which are fully furnished with tables…
NECC Releases New Mission Statement
In 2014 NECC began developing a new mission statement to replace the previous one which has been in place since 1992. The new mission statement has been finalized. “At NECC, our mission is to educate and inspire our students to succeed. We provide a welcoming environment focused on teaching and…
Textbooks should be less expensive
It’s the start of a new semester, which means it’s time to take new classes, meet new teachers and purchase egregiously expensive textbooks. In a country where politicians frequently claim to be supportive of education and making information available, it sure is difficult to afford the materials required to succeed…
