MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Thursday, Nov. 18, 2005

OLVER SECURES $1M FOR MWCC WIND ENERGY
DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

By Kimberly B. Caisse

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved $1 million to develop a wind energy demonstration project at Mount Wachusett Community College, according to Congressman John W. Olver.

John Olver

“Wind technology holds great promise as a local, renewable form of energy,” Olver said. “This demonstration project will show how wind energy will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, increase national security and encourage local economic development.”
This funding will allow MWCC to develop a renewable energy demonstration project to examine the feasibility of constructing wind turbines to increase the use of renewable wind energy for area residents.

“Our students will learn from this test tower, which will be tied to the Internet so they can monitor the weather conditions from the classroom,” said MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino. “This project will be incorporated into our natural resources curriculum and add to our laboratory of renewable energy systems.”

Executive Vice President Edward Terceiro Jr. expects construction of the test tower by the end of November.

MWCC has been successful in demonstrating other renewable energy technologies such as the photovoltaic array installed on the college’s roof, the biomass heating system and the wood cogeneration gasification system currently being manufactured for the college.

This project also will allow two local municipal light companies, Templeton and Ashburnham Municipal Light, the opportunity to collaborate with the college and benefit from the energy production.

The results of this project will be used to demonstrate the viability of similar projects throughout the region and to help spur economic development by creating a demand for turbine component manufacturing in the Northern Tier region of Massachusetts.

The funding is included in the fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations conference report approved by the House this week. Olver is a member of the Appropriations Committee and worked to secure the funding. After the Senate approves the conference report, which it is expected to do shortly, it would then go to President Bush’s desk to be signed into law.

MWCC SELECTED TO PROVIDE A CHILD IS MISSING TRAINING

The U.S. House of Representatives also has approved $240,000 in fiscal year 2006 funding to establish a local arm of A Child Is Missing in the greater Gardner area, according to Congressman John W. Olver.

A Child Is Missing is a non-profit organization that assists law enforcement agencies in the first few hours after a child or an elderly adult is reported missing. The Molly Bish Institute for Child Health & Safety at MWCC will coordinate community awareness training for area residents about the A Child Is Missing system. The organization plans to partner with MWCC to provide training opportunities to law enforcement personnel as well as the general public.

The funding is included in the FY06 Science, State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations conference report approved by the House earlier this month. Olver is a member of the Appropriations Committee and worked to secure the funding. After the Senate approves the conference report, which is expected to happen soon, it goes to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

“This system, as tested by law enforcement, has the potential for saving those first few precious hours,” Olver said. “This funding will go a long way—all towns and law enforcement agencies in the 1st Congressional District, as well as the rest of Massachusetts, will benefit from this program.”

“I’m proud Mount Wachusett Community College has been selected to provide this training,” said college President Daniel M. Asquino. “It’s natural for a community college to be involved in training of this kind.”

The funds will be used to search for missing children and the elderly, conduct child safety programs and assist law enforcement agencies throughout the 1st Congressional District and Massachusetts with important cases and public awareness.

A Child Is Missing, which assists all Massachusetts law enforcement agencies, has an advanced, telephony computer system that can place 1,000 emergency telephone calls every 60 seconds to residents and businesses in the area where the missing child or elderly adult was last seen. The program assists in all missing cases whether they involve abduction, children who are lost, wander or run away, the elderly, or mentally and physically challenged individuals.

A Child Is Missing works in concert with the Amber Alert and all child safety programs. A Child Is Missing can be accessed from anywhere in the United States and is available to law enforcement 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. The program’s services are provided free of charge to law enforcement and helps them save lives.

SERVICE-LEARNING TEAM CAMPAIGNS TO ‘STOP THE FINE PRINT’

By Kimberly B. Caisse

Product disclaimers displayed in miniscule type and broadcast at a record pace in TV and radio commercials trouble a group of Mount Wachusett Community College students so much that they’ve launched a public awareness campaign and citizens petition drive to make these disclaimers fairer for consumers.

Started by business administration students Jack Wilson and Brad Parsons in September, the duo soon sought the expertise of web design students Tony Cravatta and Aisha Rosario, broadcast student Jheri Gamboa, computer graphic design student Bri Nobrega and photography student Jen Tourtellot to complete this service-learning project.

	From left, Tony Cravatta, Aisha Rosario, Jack Wilson, Jheri Gamboa, Brad Parson and Bri Nobrega. Jen Tourtellot took the photo.

The students aim to generate enough citizen support for a proposed state law that would require companies to present their “consumer information clearly and conspicuously so that it is actually noticed and understood by consumers.”

“We wanted to avoid strict regulations. Instead we used definitions” that can be interpreted by a government agency or judge, Wilson explained.

Wilson and Parsons got the idea to start the Stop the Fine Print campaign after watching a video in Associate Professor Michael Greenwood’s class that showed some fine print. They found they needed more than their business background to pull it off, so they found interested designers, broadcasters and a photographer to create ads and a website. The team meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Library to go over a to-do list. Each team member is accountable for their part of the project.

“It’s way more organized than I ever imagined,” Wilson said. “The more we got into it, the more we liked the idea.”

The team also worked with various college staff members, including Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs Lea Ann Erickson, Director of Marketing Nichole Carter, Director of Admissions John Walsh, Reproduction Service Supervisor Don Knower, Web Coordinator Dana Armstrong, Director of Student Life Greg Clement and bookstore Manager Carol Cringan. Greenwood serves as the project mentor.

The “call to action” phase of the Stop the Fine Print campaign was held last week with team members setting up an information table. They solicited signatures for their citizens petition and showed commercials that displayed fine print. They collected more than 320 signatures, but also had to defend their position when challenged by passersby who disagreed with the proposed legislation.

In addition, the team gave a presentation last week to the Business Department’s Advisory Board and was asked by MWCC President Daniel M. Asquino to give the presentation at the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, Dec. 8.

Wilson plans to continue the project in the spring semester. “The service learning is more important than the project,” he said. “I’ve grown up because of service learning. It keeps your mind in the classroom.”

‘COYOTE’ AUTHOR TALKS ABOUT EXPERIENCE WRITING NONFICTION

Dr. Catherine Reid, author of “Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst,” spoke to students, faculty and staff about the challenges of writing a nonfiction book during a lecture in the North Cafeteria Wednesday, Nov. 16.

The book is both personal memoir and natural history. It examines the way society treats differences from the perspective of someone who is an outsider using the coyote as both metaphor and the subject of scientific inquiry.

Dr. Catherine Reid answers a question from the audience during her appearance in the North Cafe this week.

A fiction writer, Reid’s first challenge was switching gears to nonfiction, she said. But she also had to learn about coyotes and speak with people who studied them, not an easy thing for an introvert to do.

“It panned out. I got a book out of all this material,” Reid said.

She explained to the writers in the audience that it’s important to have a sense of the context of their stories. She incorporated her difficult experiences in high school during the 1960s with her interest in coyotes. That interest began when she was in high school.

“Twenty-five years later,” Reid said, “no one had written this book.”

Fifty years ago, there were no coyotes in the Eastern United States, she said. Now, a coyote-wolf hybrid has completely saturated the area east of the Mississippi.

“I intertwined my story with the coyote’s story,” Reid said. “My experiences set up metaphors for the reaction to the coyotes during those 50 years.”

She said she used many of the skills she gained writing fiction when she wrote this nonfiction book. Even when writing nonfiction, she explained, “there has to be some kind of narrative arc. There must be some kind of quest the narrator makes. I wanted to see a coyote…I wanted to see how they live…I wanted to see where they hide.”

“We lived for 150 years in New England without a large predator, and we got spoiled,” Reid said. The coyote-wolf hybrid is unique to the East Coast. Plus, fisher cats and bears are seen in suburban areas as well as woodlands.

“I hope respectful coexistence comes out of the book,” she said.

Student Government Association and ALANA Club members pack up food they collected for their annual Thanksgiving Food Drive on Make a Difference Day, Saturday, Oct. 22. The food was sorted for distribution to MWCC students in need and the Gardner Community Action Committee food pantry. From front to back are ALANA president Isaura Luna, SGA president Caitlin Barclay and Tamika Starks.		Lily Jones of Jefferson, Mass., reads from her work “Distance” at the fifth annual Tapestries breakfast and reading sponsored by the MWCC LIFE program. Tapestries, an anthology of writing, is edited by Patricia Cosentino (looking on) who reviewed over 1,200 submissions from all over the world for the publication. Copies can be purchased for $5 by contacting Lorraine Wickman at (978) 630-9176.

Other MWCC News :

• MWCC will host an American Red Cross Blood Drive Monday, Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the commons area of the college’s Gardner campus. To register, contact Marianne Stoy at (978) 630-9136. Walk-ins are welcome.

• The MWCC Foundation, Inc. and Nashoba Valley Medical Center of Ayer will hold their annual Holiday Greens Sale in conjunction with the college’s sixth annual Basket Raffle and Winter Fest Fair at MWCC’s Gardner campus Wednesday, Nov. 30 and Thursday, Dec. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds will support the professional development of the college's nursing faculty and to encourage highly trained nurses to share their knowledge with the college's nursing students. The Basket Raffle and Winter Fest Fair benefits student scholarships. Vendors and crafters will be selling items. College teams create the theme baskets that will be raffled off to raise money for student scholarships. For more information, contact Diane Hamilton at dhamilton@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9387 or Sandy Arsenault at (978) 630-9133 or sarsenault@mwcc.mass.edu.

• The Theatre at the Mount will present the stage version of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” including all of the wonderful songs from the film ranging from waltzes to French cabaret to a Broadway-style show-tune featuring the dinner dishes and silverware, beginning Friday, Dec. 2. Alyssa Gentry plays Belle, Tim Murphy plays her father and Chris Cassello plays the beast. The cast also includes Jeffrey Fleming as Gaston, Craig Cormier as LeFou, Jennifer Williams as Madame de la Grande Bouche, Rebecca Ufema as Mrs. Potts, Marc Clermont as Cogsworth, Rob Houle as Lumiere, Nicole Couture as Babette, Nicholas Landry as Chip and a large ensemble of singers and dancers. Tickets are on sale now for performances on Friday, Dec. 2, Saturday, Dec. 3, Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. and Sundays Dec. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m. Evening tickets are $18 and matinees are $15. Advance purchase is highly recommended. Call the Theatre at the Mount box office at (978) 632-2403 or purchase tickets online at http://theatre.mwcc.edu.

• The MWCC Library will be open for extended hours during the fall semester’s final exam period: Friday, Dec. 9, open until 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the Library’s main desk at (978) 630-9125.

• MWCC’s Practical Nursing program will hold its third annual Pinning Ceremony for the Class of 2005 Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Raymond M. LaFontaine Fine Arts Center auditorium. These graduates went through the program at the college’s Orange campus. For more information, contact Kathy Suchocki at ksuchocki@mwcc.mass.edu or call at (978) 630-9544.

• The MWCC automotive technology program recently was awarded a $2,000 Snap-on Tool gift certificate from the National Institute for Automotive Service. The award was presented to the automotive program to honor Professor Peter Kaufmann’s attendance at the North American Council of Automotive Teachers conference last summer in Spokane, Wash. For more information, contact Kaufmann at (978) 630-9336 or pkaufmann@mwcc.mass.edu.

• MWCC Professor Peter Kaufmann was named president of the North American Council of Automotive Teachers (NACAT) in September. NACAT is the only international organization devoted to teachers and trainers of automotive technology and its related fields. NACAT’s mission is to promote, update and improve automotive service education. The council’s goal is to develop and maintain a strong professional organization that will serve the needs of automotive educators in public and private enterprise throughout North America. For more information, contact Kaufmann at (978) 630-9336 or pkaufmann@mwcc.mass.edu.

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