MWCC's Weekly e-newsletter

Friday, April 22, 2005

MWCC NAMED A WINNER OF WORCESTER BUSINESS

JOURNAL’S 2005 ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD

Mount Wachusett Community College was named a winner of the Worcester Business Journal’s 15th annual 2005 Environmental Awards in the Monday, April 18 issue. The award recognizes President Daniel M. Asquino’s and Executive Vice President Edward Terceiro Jr.’s efforts to build the college’s biomass plant a decade ago despite lukewarm support from state and federal officials.

	Executive Vice President Edward Terceiro Jr. showed the biomass plant to visitors from the United Kingdom for in January.

The WBJ states on the cover of the April 18 issue: “The line-up of nominees included dozens of innovative business and civic leaders who were willing to undertake the unknown or to invest in technologies that would only later garner the respect of onlookers. Our award winners have shown exemplary environmental leadership and commitment in preserving the environment through efforts that range from brownfields development, energy products, and recycling, to making a market in “green” products and bringing together public and private entities.”

“This award shows the college is a leader in environmental innovation,” said Asquino. He added that the biomass plant has not only saved the college hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs, but has also made a positive impact on our environment by considerably reducing a variety of pollutants, including CO2, SO2 and NOx. Terceiro, who is a mechanical engineer, is currently working on a second phase of the project, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, which involves field testing a prototype biomass gasifier that will co-generate electricity.

The WBJ wrote: “When Edward Terceiro Jr.…first began pursuing the idea of building a biomass plant on campus to heat the 480,000-square-foot facility in the mid-1990s, he met plenty of skepticism." Terceiro told the business journal that as a result of this project, the college has saved over $661,000 in the past two years, and "many of the people who showed Terceiro and his team the door are now asking them to do presentations on the merits of biomass and their successful plant."

The other award winners are Christopher Flynn on the Massachusetts Food Association, Scott Richardson of Gorman Richardson Architects Inc., Richard Lubert of GE Energy, Lisa Wong of Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority and David White of RH White Construction Co. Inc.

ALPHA BETA GAMMA INDUCTS RECORD NUMBER OF NEW MEMBERS

More than 50 Mount Wachusett Community College students—a record number—were inducted into the Chi Gamma Chapter of Alpha Beta Gamma at its 15th annual Induction Ceremony Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m. at the Gardner campus.

“This is a great honor for all of you,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. “My hope, our

	New members are inducted into the Chi Gamma Chapter of Alpha Beta Gamma.

hope is that this is one of many honors you receive in your careers.”

The students are: Jordan Altobelli of Hubbardston, Grace Anderson of Gardner, Jacinthe Arcoite of Leominster, Carla Bagley of Gardner, Donna Ballentine of New Salem, Dennis Bartlett of Rindge, N.H., Richard Berry of Gardner, Brandie Cail of Fitchburg, Donna Catalano of Ashburnham, Martha Clark of Lancaster, Matthew Colby of Troy, N.H., Kimberly Cochlin of Fitchburg, Karen Corliss of Gardner, Patricia Dakota of Hubbardston, Joseph DeFilippo of Ayer, Jane Desolier of Gardner, Junice Dominguez of Worcester, Pamela Douai of Leominster, Kathryn Duffy of Gardner, Stephanie Durgin of Winchendon, Darlene Durkin of Gardner, Jean Escabi of Lunenburg, Majella Filipi of Fitzwilliam, N.H., Sarah Fortin of Leominster, Ann Marie Fournier of Leominster, Sara Franz of Fitchburg, Midori Gail of Sunderland, Lorren Marie Grammont of Gardner, Nicole LaFortune of Acton, Jennifer Keller of Westminster, Jennifer King of Gardner, Donald Kitzmiller of Warwick, Kevin Lynch of Shirley, Wendy Martin of Templeton, Robert Martinez of Shirley, Wendy McFarland of Gardner, Lynn McMiller of Fitchburg, Brandy Nadeau of Orange, Janice Pekkinen of Templeton, Evelyn Perez of Leominster, Heidi Perry of Leominster, Christina Persson of Winchendon, Melanie Rogers of Lunenburg, Mindy Sears of Fitchburg, Laura Sweatt of Townsend, Leanne Tadry of Sterling, Elizabeth Talbot of Orange, Ryan Taylor of New Braintree, Dianne Tjampiris of Ashburnham, Courtney Tyrrell of Auburn, Kerry Vachon of Clinton, Emisael Vazquez of Fitchburg and Alan Wheeler Jr. of Leominster.

The honorary inductees are: Director of Student Life Greg Clement, Professor Michael Greenwood, Professor Tina Wilson, The Polus Center Executive Director Michael Lundquist and keynote speaker Janice Wentworth.

	Janice Wentworth

Wentworth co-owns The Warren Farm & Sugarhouse in North Brookfield, which specializes in the production of pure maple syrup, maple confections and specialty food items made with maple syrup. It also caters specialty maple dinners.

Wentworth told the gathering that being flexible, “taking the opportunity that comes your way,” is important for entrepreneurs. She and her husband cultivated their maple products business through their willingness to try new product ideas and “to get off the farm” to find customers. “We began to understand, after we bonded with our customers, they would come to our farm,” she said. “Getting to know our customers, bonding with them, means they bring their friends, their family.”

Flexibility played a central role in the couple’s decision to accept a proposal by a Japanese company to sell some of their products in that country. “Rather than say no, we said, ‘Why not?’ ” Wentworth said.

Alpha Beta Gamma was organized in 1970 as a national business honor society for community, technical and junior college students. The three-fold goal of Alpha Beta Gamma is to recognize and encourage scholarship, provide for leadership training and development and to foster cooperation among men and women who are advancing their professional business careers. To meet those goals, the group organized and participated in the following successful events on campus:

• Bringing a civic engagement speaker, The Polus Center Executive Director Michael Lundquist, to speak at an ABG dinner.
• Holding four bake sales.
• Donating hats, mittens and gifts to the Hope House at Christmastime.
• Maintaining a website.
• Held a special bake sale that raised $125 for the American Red Cross’ Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort.
• Six members attended a Student Government Leadership Conference.

• Raised $200 for a scholarship for an ABG member. Vice President Dawn Grigarauskas will receive the scholarship at Evening of Excellence on Thursday, May 12.

• Sold Santa letters to earn money for the group.

“I congratulate you on what you do in your communities, what you will continue to do in your communities,” Asquino said.

WHAT’S NEXT SPEAKER TIM WISE SAYS EVERYONE PAYS
A HIGH PRICE FOR A SYSTEM OF WHITE PRIVILEGE

What’s Next Speaker Series lecturer Tim Wise offered a different view of affirmative action during his speech at the Fitchburg Public Library Wednesday, April 20—whites were the first, often sole, beneficiaries of this kind of government policy. That laid the groundwork for whites to continue to benefit from what Wise deems “white privilege.”

	Tim Wise

“Unless we talk about these things, we will miss the degree we are implicated in the system,” Wise said to the white people in the mixed race audience of about 60 gathered in the library’s auditorium.

The Naturalization Act of 1790, which allowed only free, white people to become citizens of the United States, was the first act of affirmative action, Wise said. Less than 100 years later, the Homestead Act of 1862 only gave government protection to white landowners who took advantage of the law to settle west of the Mississippi. When whites forced blacks off their homesteads, they had no recourse to get their land back. “If we used honest language, we’d call them thieves,” he said.

Another example, Wise said, was the early Federal Housing Administration loan regulations. The FHA was vital to creating a middle class, he said. Because it prohibited lenders from giving loans to people of color, “that middle class was almost entirely, if not exclusively, a white middle class.” The FHA program also supported white migration to the suburbs because loans couldn’t be given for homes in declining neighborhoods, typically in cities, he added.

Wise said he’s a beneficiary of this racial homeownership program. His grandmother put up a FHA-financed home in an upper-class neighborhood as collateral for a college loan he needed to attend Tulane University.

He also traced the development of lower-class, white privilege back to the Civil War and the 1600s, when wealthy, white landowners used common skin color as a way to enlist lower-class whites’ support for a war to preserve slavery in the South and to quell revolts by indentured Europeans and African slaves.

Today, Wise noted, the typical white family income is 14 times higher than the typical black family and 11 times higher than the typical Latino family. Each year, there are 2 to 3 million cases of housing discrimination reported to the government.

He ridiculed the idea of reverse discrimination, specifically the University of Michigan affirmative action lawsuit filed by a white woman who was denied admission. There were 1,400 whites who were admitted with lower qualifications than the woman, but she found fault with the admission of 85 people of color with lower qualifications, Wise said.

“This is a hard-core, working class city,” Wise said about Fitchburg. “The white people here aren’t very affluent. It’s important to recognize that less affluent whites do receive privilege, that this privilege comes at a very high cost.”

He outlined four main costs:

• The debates over poverty and unemployment have become racialized, which means that white poor are now invisible.
• There is a special stigma in this society to being white and poor. This “leads to a lot of internalized hatred” against people of color.
• If the public identifies poverty and social welfare programs with people of color, the public in general stops supporting them. But when the programs are cut, they are cut for everyone. States with a high population of minorities have fewer social welfare programs than states with a mostly white population.
• The “system of privilege” restricts the building of coalitions of people of color and white people.

Wise’s case for institutionalized white privilege also touched on education as well as the job market, drug use and trafficking and racial profiling.

“I could not get into Tulane today,” Wise said. His SAT scores were low, and he was admitted because he was a member of his high school’s debate team. “The standards were lowered for me,” he said.

MWCC Trustee Sergio Paez, who emceed the event, asked Wise how people of color can engage white people to talk about race when they’re working together to find solutions to community problems.

“White people have a lot of experience with race. It’s why I wrote ‘White Like Me,’ ” Wise said. “When white people…step out of that comfort zone…we have a power, a sick power, that can and does move other people into this dialogue.”

The fifth What’s Next speaker will be economist Dr. C. Otto Scharmer, cofounder of Project ELIAS (Emerging Leaders for Innovations Across Systems) at MIT and author of “Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future” and “Theory U: Leading from the Emerging Future,” on Friday, June 10. He will lead a discussion on his theory for effective business innovation and social change. Continue to visit http://whatsnext.mwcc.edu for more details.

Upcoming Campus Events:

• Mount Wachusett Community College Transfer Services will have the following four-year colleges and universities on the Gardner campus to share information with students: Worcester State College, Monday, April 25 and Daniel Webster College, Thursday, April 28.

• MWCC’s Entrepreneurial Resource Center at the Devens campus will host the presentation “Hiring the Right People: Interviewing Process” for entrepreneurs and small business owners on Wednesday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to noon. Participants will develop skills in identifying staff needs, outreach and recruitment, pre-interview preparations, interview process, employee selection and employee support. The cost is only $50. For more information or to register, contact Lisa Derby Oden at loden@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9569.

• MWCC will welcome new freshmen and prospective students during the annual Spring Fling Monday, April 25, featuring solo guitarist and singer John Rush. The event includes a barbecue, special desserts, vendors, novelties and more, and is open to MWCC students, faculty and staff. Spring Fling is sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Admissions Office, GEAR UP, and CARS (Committee for Activities and Recreation for Students). For more information, call the Office of Student Life at (978) 630-9252.

• Auditions for the Stephen Sondheim musical, “A Little Night Music,” will be held on Sunday, April 24 and Monday, April 25 at 7 p.m. sharp in room 182 at the MWCC Gardner campus. Director Lorien Corbelletti, Music Director David Twiss and Choreographer Rob Houle are looking for a cast of 10 adult women, 10 adult men and one teenage girl (13 to 15 years old). Those who tryout need to prepare a short vocal selection (accompanist provided) and should expect to be taught a short dance combination. (Wear appropriate clothing and footwear.) Cold readings from the script may also be required. The tentative rehearsal schedule is Sundays from 6 to 9 p.m.; Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m. beginning May 1. Performances will be Friday, June 24, Saturday, June 25, Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, July 10 at 2 p.m. For more information, contact Professor Gail Steele at (978) 630-9162 or visit the Theatre at the Mount web site at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

• For National Poetry Month, the MWCC Library and Lifelong Institute for Enrichment will host a poetry panel Wednesday, April 27 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in room 127. A group of published poets—MWCC’s very own Saúl Torres and Jess Mynes, along with Deborah Kang Dean, BG Thurston and Rodger Martin—will be answering questions about being published and writing poetry. For more information, contact Reference and Instructional Services Librarian Heidi McCann at (978) 630-9338.

• The MWCC Library and Lifelong Institute for Enrichment also will hold an Evening of Poetry/Poetry Slam in the Library on Wednesday, April 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. The event will feature one hour of poetry readings by FD Reeve, Bob Clawson, BG Thurston, Rodger Martin and Deborah Kang Dean. Then there will be an open-mic poetry reading for students and members of the community. For more information, contact LIFE Program Coordinator Lorraine Wickman at (978) 630-9176.

• To help students prepare for final exams, the MWCC Library will hold extended hours on Friday, April 29 until 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call the Library at (978) 630-9125.

• Mount Wachusett Community College’s LIFE program will host “Bridal Fashions, 1840 to the Present” Saturday, May 7 at the Colonial Hotel, Betty Spring Road, Gardner at noon. Tickets are $20 for the luncheon and show and on sale at MWCC’s Lifelong Learning Office, room 163 or by contacting LIFE Program Coordinator Lorraine Wickman at (978) 630-9176. This unique fashion show will feature the evolution of the bridal gown from the first time a special dress was used for the wedding day, in 1840, to today’s styles. Alexandria Stevens has owned and operated a bridal shop and has collected bridal gowns for years. She will share her expertise while giving historical facts about this most special of all dresses.

• MWCC will be hosting a Complementary Health Care Fair Thursday, May 12 from noon to 6 p.m. A variety of practitioners will be on hand to share their knowledge and practices. Attendees can choose from 11 different 45-minute breakout sessions on a specific complementary health practice or modality. Dr. Herbert Benson, author, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, will be the keynote speaker in the MWCC auditorium at 3 p.m. Tickets for Benson’s presentation are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. To buy tickets, contact Margaret Jalliet at (978) 630-9292.

• MWCC's annual Evening of Excellence will be held on Thursday, May 12 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Four Points by Sheraton in Leominster. Students will be honored with merit and scholarship awards during this special ceremony. For more information, contact Jackie Suhoski at (978) 630-9142.

• Time slots for members of the MWCC Pacers to walk the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11 are going fast. Contact Sue Goldstein, JoAnn Brooks and Jan LeClair to get your relay packet and sign up to fill the last remaining spots. The 2004 Relay raised $758,000, the highest amount of the other 156 relays in New England. The Gardner Relay has raised over $5 million dollars since its inception 11 years ago. This year’s goal is to raise 800,000. Other benchmarks reached at the 2004 Relay include having 733 survivors walk the track, a number unheard of at any of the other relays, and being ranked No. 11 nationwide in funds raised (out of 4,200 relays).

Lea Ann Erickson
Director of Community Relations
Mount Wachusett Community College
Phone: (978) 630-9322
Fax: (978) 630-9561
cell: (508) 517-5202
l_erickson@mwcc.mass.edu

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