A new computer lab and more overall space for students are coming
By Nick Pantinas
Correspondent
If you’re a returning student to NECC, you will notice quite the difference when you walk back into the Bentley Library.
That’s because its computer labs are currently undergoing a renovation.
All the books from the third floor have been moved down to the first to make way for a huge overhauling of the upstairs level of the library.
Gale Stuart, a 34-year NECC veteran and head of References Services, said, “There won’t be as much room for students during the renovation, but the end result will be an improved library with a new computer lab.”
With all this construction going on it may be an inconvenience for of students and staff, so keep this in mind if you’re planning on going to the library to study.
In the end, the benefits should outweigh the costs, though, as more space will be afforded to complete work and hold classes.
The construction of the new computer lab will be ongoing throughout winter break and will end right about when the spring semester starts.
Mike Gendron, the supervisor in charge of construction commented, “We expect construction to end around Jan. 22, 2016. . . once it’s completed, a raise and a vacation would be nice too!”
With the ongoing renovations of the college, NECC is looking to the future with upgraded buildings filled with new technology that benefit both faculty and students.
While the noise may be distracting, the results will hopefully have been worth the wait.
NECC’s Starfish Early Success program is still accepting entries for the “Name the Starfish” contest. You may have seen the bright, blue mascot around campus, but soon we will know what to call that cheerful character.
On Oct. 19, NECC’s Lawrence Campus will hold the Health and Wellness Fair, where students will have a chance to fill out an entry form with their suggestion for the mascot’s name. This will be the last day for entries.
The Starfish Strategic Team will then choose the top five names from the entries and ask the entire student body to vote on which of the five names they like best. The deadline will be Nov. 8.
“Stay tuned for an email with instructions on voting,” said NECC staff member Deb LaValley.
The winner will receive a gift basket of which the contents are “still growing,” said LaValley.
The Starfish Early Success program is a way for professors to offer students direct feedback on their work in class, whether that’s praise for a job done well or concern about work that has not been completed on time.
Students can see this feedback through email notifications and on myNECC.
Why do more students seem to prefer the NECC bookstore to the on-campus vending machines? Perhaps it’s because the prices for snacks and drinks can be considerably lower at the bookstore. For example, a toaster pastry in the vending machine is $1.50, while at the bookstore the price is 99 cents.
In addition, the school bookstore also seems to have a greater selection.
“The store has more variety,” said current first year NECC student Ryan Foucault. Using the same toaster pastry scenario: in the machines you only get one flavor, while at the bookstore you can get at least five different options.
At the store, there are also lunch options like pizzas and sandwiches. They offer some “meal deals” on lunches that include an entree, a bag of chips and a drink.
Paying for snacks can also be more convenient at the bookstore, especially if you’re carrying larger bills.
Local legend holds that artist Bob Montana created the Archie comic strip and based the characters, at least in part, on his Haverhill High School peers. The truth of this claim has always been somewhat of a mystery; it seems to be contradicted in a few places, including by the original publisher of the comic strip, John L. Goldwater.
Goldwater is quoted as saying that he modeled the characters largely after people that he met while traveling throughout the Midwest as a reporter. Goldwater is also said to have attended school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and Riverdale is the name of the fictional town from where Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and the rest of the Archie gang hail.
When the comic was first released in Nov. 1941, it was clear that Riverdale was located in Massachusetts. The high school depicted in the comic also seems to have been modeled after the original Haverhill High School, which is now City Hall.
The comic, still popular after 60 years, included hints as to the location of Riverdale in each issue in 2002 but at the end of the year, it was revealed that Riverdale would be given no official location. Some believed the hints pointed to Riverdale being located in the the Missouri area.
Cambridge-based film critic Gerald Peary has been a fan of the Archie comics since the ’50s, but his interest was really piqued in the ’80s. He read a letter to the editor in the Boston Globe from a Haverhill librarian, who stated that the Archie characters were alive and well living in Haverhill.
It was at that time Peary began his journey to find the real Archie characters. He created a documentary about what he uncovered called “Archie’s Betty” and is stopping in Haverhill next month as part of a nationwide tour.
In celebration of Haverhill’s 375th anniversary, NECC, Buttonwoods Museum and The Haverhill Historical Society are hosting two free showings of the film on Oct. 1 at 3 and 6:30 p.m. in the Hartleb Technology Center. An exhibit of Montana’s work and the original work of NECC students will be on display in the Linda Hummel ArtSpace from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31.
Accessibility at Northern Essex has long been a hot-button issue. The outdated elevators, the cracks in the ramps, the ice and snow in the winter — it all falls under the umbrella of accessibility concerns.
With the Spurk Building being renovated this upcoming year, some may wonder what upgrades are going to be made to improve accessibility. Susan Martin, director of Learning Accommodations, is an advocate for the issue. Martin has pitched the idea of “universal design.” Universal design would make improvements with certain disabilities in mind but would benefit the community as a whole.
These ideas include higher, larger desks in the rooms that can accommodate wheelchairs. Right now, readers may notice one or two desks in the classrooms that are larger, but in Martin’s ideal world, a wheelchair would fit comfortably anywhere in the class.
Universal design also involves the ramps that anyone can use. Whether someone is using them because they are disabled, rolling a bag behind them or just tired after a long day of running to class, Martin points out that this is another positive effect of universal design.
There is an elevator in every building, with E and B sharing one where they intersect. Leading into the Hawrylciw Theater on the top floor of Spurk is a wheelchair lift. Last December, before a performance of “A Christmas Carol,” the wheelchair lift failed. The woman, and her wheelchair, had to be carried down the remaining stairs.
“I do get a few of those (complaints),” said Martin, who also explained that there are records of each complaint and the respective follow-up. When there is an undocumented issue and students voice their concerns later down the line, Martin said, “We don’t often know all of the details … If (students) have what (they) believe is an ‘access issue’ now or in the future please do not hesitate to contact Justine Caron.”
There is an Access Committee that meets just once a year to discuss accessibility concerns and improvements. Martin is a part of the committee along with previously mentioned Justine Caron, the ADA Compliance Officer on campus. The committee was founded in 1998 with the responsibility to “review, discuss and recommend items for a campus-wide access plan in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” according to an email from Martin.
There is a meeting to discuss the Spurk renovation plans on Oct. 8 in the Technology Center, room 103 at noon.
The Observer invites you to share your experiences with accessibility on campus. Contact Kelly at observer@necc.mass.edu.
| NECC ObserverNECC students Christian Doyle, Tarah MacGregor and Geehae Moon went on a road trip this summer to visit two colleges in Florida. The road trip was initially the idea of MacGregor, a Liberal Arts major in her fifth year at NECC. She wanted to visit her to top choice schools: New College of Florida in Sarasota and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. “I was inspired to go on the trip for a couple of reasons, most important being that I watched my sister visit her number one choice for transfer and hate it earlier this year,” she said.
The three friends decided to make stops at several different places on the way to Florida, including Washington D.C. “Tarah figured she had to make the trip down to the schools anyways, so why not make it into something fun, like a bonding experience for a couple of her close friends?” said Doyle, a sophomore studying theater at NECC. It took them six days to get to the first college, and they slept in MacGregor’s car at night.
A lot of the highlights of their trip occurred on the way down. They visited the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Freer Museum, and Edgar Allan Poe Museum. They also stopped in Savannah, Georgia, and went to the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens. Moon, a theater major in her seventh full time term at NECC, described them as “breathtaking.”
The three students had one last adventure in Florida, at St. Petersburg Beach, which Doyle described as “really spectacular.”
“There were actually four dolphins that were about 10 feet away from us. I initially thought it was a shark. . . I was like ‘Honestly, I’m not going to be a special on Shark Week,’ so I ran out of the water. Then as soon as I realized they were dolphins, I went back,” he said.
Their first college visit was at New College in Sarasota.
“I’ve been looking at New College for years now; it’s been my dream school,” said MacGregor. The college’s campus is actually the former estate of the Ringling brothers. “New College was very impressive. The campus is gorgeous. The admissions building is made of pink marble, set right on the bay. It was like a dream,” said Moon.
Despite New College’s charm, and MacGregor’s high expectations for the college, the students found themselves feeling much more enamored after leaving Eckerd College. “Honestly, I ended up hating New College. The campus was beautiful, but I couldn’t see myself there,” she said. “I was freaking out. I didn’t know a world where New College wasn’t my next step and I was terrified of letting that go. I didn’t even want to visit Eckerd the next day,” she said. Before visiting Eckerd, she didn’t know as much about what they offered and wasn’t nearly as excited about it as she was about New College. She decided to go because her mentors strongly encouraged her to and she trusted their advice. To her surprise, she ended up falling in love with Eckerd after only 5 minutes on the campus. “It felt like fate,” she said.
“Visiting Eckerd made me realize that one thing I really like about NECC is that it has a very holistic view of its students. They aren’t as rigid as other universities. Eckerd and Northern Essex kind of share that,” said Doyle. Eckerd appealed to Doyle because they don’t rule out students who may have a nontraditional path. Eckerd offers a program that, in a way, lets you build your own major. Basically, you work under an umbrella of a major and then work with an advisor to create a course load that’s more specifically aligned with what you are interested in. While Doyle is pursuing a theater degree, he also has many other interests, and wasn’t sure how he could incorporate them into one degree. “I realized that’s the kind of program I would like to go into, and had I not visited Eckerd, I don’t think I would have realized that’s what I needed,” he said.
Moon was also impressed with Eckerd. “I loved the community feel of the campus. I realized that the sense of close knit community feeling I have at NECC could be something I could find at Eckerd,” she said.
Reflecting on the experience, MacGregor realized that what a school’s website looks like is not indicative of how it will make you feel. “Nothing can measure comfort or community other than how you actually feel there, and that cannot be taken for granted,” she said.
Over the summer, the ArtSpace located in a remote corner of the Bentley Library received a new name and some well deserved attention during a dedication ceremony on May 15. So did Linda Hummel-Shea, for whom the space was renamed. Hummel-Shea started at NECC as a part-time librarian 35 years ago and retired last June as the assistant dean of libraries. Throughout the years, this space had been used for a variety of purposes, including a conference room and a place for hosting large events, but in 2009, after a unanimous vote, it was decided that the space would be recreated as “…a long desired and needed location for the students, faculty and community to display their work.” said Mike Hearn at the dedication ceremony. Hearn is the college’s director of libraries and he emceed the dedication ceremony. “The artspace would not exist as it is today had it not been for the vision and support and tenacity of Linda Hummel-Shea.” said Hearn. Continue reading ArtSpace Dedication→
When the last edition of the Observer came out this past May, the NECC Knights had just finished the regular season with a 25-2 record, winning 16 straight to round up the season. The team qualified for the number 1 seed in the in the Region XXI tournament, where they crushed the competition and won.
On the first day of the competition they defeated Massasoit, 9-1, in a game that would only make it to the 7th inning before the mercy rule was called because the Knights were clobbering the Warriors.
The next day the Knights kept rolling, beating Holyoke 10-4, and then the day after in the championship game of the tournament they went on to win against Holyoke again with a final score of 17-7. The Knights made it to the NJCAA DIII World Series for the fourth straight year, three of those coming under Coach Jeff Mejia.
“It is a new location this year and it should be interesting. I’m really looking forward to getting to North Carolina. We know the routine now and that should definitely help us,” said Mejia prior to the World Series. “It’s been a great run. These kids always step up. The tighter the game is, the better they play.”
Unfortunately, the Knights’ winning season would not transfer to N.C. They lost the two games they played, leading to an early exit. The first game they lost to Tyler Junior College, 5-1, and they lost in the elimination game the next day against Century College, 10-7. Their losses in the World Series did not take away from their amazing season.
The NECC Knights won many individual awards. Mejia won Coach of the Year, and MacDaniel Singleton, Keith Linnane, Ryley Warnock and Jake Rayner all earned Gold Glove Players of the Year awards. Seven players made it on the Division III All-New England team as well. All the sophomores from the team have transferred to four-year colleges which is no easy task.
The NECC Knights are looking forward to their fall practice season, where they will get ready for the regular season in the spring and look to dominate on the field once again.
The seventh annual Peace Poetry contest came to a close on Friday night with a reading and award ceremony in the Hartleb Technology Center to honor the participants.
The event began at 6 p.m. with a welcome speech from Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. William Heineman, followed by a keynote address from local performing artist and poet Letriah Masters.
Host and coordinator Paul Saint-Amand then invited each of the participants to the front of the auditorium to read their poem for the audience.
The 300 seat auditorium was nearly full, but even the youngest participants managed to deliver their own individual message of peace with poise and conviction.
After reading their entry, winners were given a certificate by professor Liz Espinoza and received a stem of daisys from NECC student Justin Merced.
This year, the project began in the fall with a contest among Lance Hidy’s Introduction to Digital Photography students to provide the photograph for the poster and cover design. Students and faculty were asked to vote on their favorite entry.
The picture of the hands cupped around the peace sign, submitted by NECC student Nicole Chetsas, won the vote by a landslide. Inspired by her success in this contest, Chetsas is now considering a career in photography.
“I’m going to be switching my major over to it. I’m trying to get into the New England School of Photography,” she said, “I’m taking a year off to save up and build my portfolio.”
The poetry and drawing portion of the contest was open to people of all ages throughout the greater Merrimack Valley area. It began in the fall with the advertising posters at NECC encouraging participation and an invitation to other local schools to submit entries as well.
According to Saint-Amand, about 600 entries were received. The entries were read by student and faculty volunteers who narrowed it down to the final 73 poems and 11 drawings printed in the chap book.
“If we try to put too many pages in, it won’t even close.” Saint-Amand said of the winnowing process.
Among the poems included in the book is, “Imagine“ by local poet laureate Gayle Heney. Formerly the keynote speaker for this same event, Heney now hosts a local television show called “Write Now” in which she interviews successful writers.
“It’s been a great opportunity to ask writers questions that I want to know the answers to,” Heney said. The show airs in Haverhill, Andover, North Andover and Methuen.
Four students from the Islamic Academy for Peace were also included among the accepted entries. This was given to them as a class assignment and it is the first year that they have participated. Selma Dakiri, seventh grader, got the inspiration for her poem by thinking about “How people are treated by their skin color, and how they don’t treat people equally.”
Eighth grader Kelthoum Fathi said that she was thinking about “Simple acts of peace that we do everyday.”
“I wanted to talk about peace in general, all over the world,” said Mahmoud Qesmi, also an eighth grader.
“My poem had a bunch of different languages,” said seventh grader Adiba Ubaidu, “because peace is needed everywhere in the world, so I thought it should be included.”
Staying up-to-date with fashion can be quite simple. Thanks to today’s technology, at a click of a button you can browse new fashion trends and splurge on the latest designer apparel.
Anabel Lopez, 20, says she’s guilty of splurging on items that she now regrets buying. “When I was a sophomore in high school, I got a new job at a bank and was making a decent amount of money, and every weekend I would just go all out buying unnecessary things. Everything from sneakers to designer bags to a bunch of fancy clothes I don’t even wear,” said Lopez. Lopez admits her shopping tendencies led her to be financially unstable.
“I have definitely learned from my mistakes. Everyone wants to looks good but saving is the smarter thing to do.”
Lopez believes she manages her money a lot better now and has even learned some new tips on saving money.
“So I have this little trick I do when I go out shopping now, I always go to the sale section first, that sounds really cheap, but it keeps me from being tempted from buying things that are way over my budget,” Lopez said.
Michael Garcia, 22, has also struggled with managing his money. “Garcia says he has worked at GameStop since being a freshman in high school and owns hundreds of video games. “My bad shopping habits all come from video games. Just last year alone, I think I’ve spent $1000.00 on video games,” said Garcia.
“Playing video games is something I’m good at and also very knowledgeable about. So it’s very hard for me knowing there’s a new video game coming out and being able to resist from buying it,” said Garcia.
Garcia says that his obsession with buying new video games will not cease, but is much more controlled when it comes to spending his money.
“Unfortunately, I work at GameStop, so there’s a lot of temptation but I try to avoid buying games in store and buy online instead. One of my favorite websites is eStarland.com, they offer great prices and give cash or credit to people with old games or consoles to trade,” Garcia said.
Sabrina Johnson, 20, said she is proud of her spending habits.
“I take pride in the fact that I’m able to afford life, save money and buy myself nice things, but that all comes with knowing how to manage your money properly,” said Johnson. Johnson said she checks her mobile banking account app and budgets herself every week.
“In order to save money, you need to be disciplined, and to be disciplined, you need to set goals. I usually pay my bills and take 30% of my earnings and put it into my savings, then I set up a budget for spending for the entire week and stick with that budget even if I run out,” said Johnson.
