May 1 -AC theater production of Return to the Forbidden Plate. 7:30 p.m. -Mosaic and Voxix performances. 7:30 p.m. at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. May 5 -Faculty book signing. 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the 2nd floor of the CUB on the Washington Street Campus.
Fall 2009 graduates Angela G. Wagner Associate Arts Teaching: Julieann Beddow, Brittany C. Blackwell, Lindsey R. Brown, David W. Clawson, Christi L. Ellis, Jaclyn K. Gaitan, Jessica S. Hibbs, Becky L. Lampe, Shane Thomas Langford, Niki C. Lorenz, Karen Y.
Amarillo College hosted the 2010 Area Class A University Interscholastic League Academics One-Act Play Contest April 9. Six high schools -- Follett, Higgins, Sudan, Wheeler, Farwell, and Sunray -- competed for two spots in order to advance to the regional OAP competition...
For parents looking for alternative summer plans for their children, registration for Amarillo College’s summer program, Kids College, started Monday...
In almost every advanced society, mankind’s need to be helpful toward the less fortunate is recognized. Amarillo College’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity is a part of that help...
Including: A cappella group to offer free concert May 1, Changes made in Pell Grant procedures, Committee chooses 2010 Common Reader and AC participates in March for Babies.
Employees and students at Amarillo College are getting into shape with their own Biggest Loser competition...
Sneak Peek is a chance for 500 high school seniors to get a feel for college life...
Veterans of Amarillo College will host the 2nd Annual Meet and Greet Motorcycle/Car Show May 8 in the north parking lot of AC’s Washington Street Campus. The public is invited to attend and support local veterans...
The Amarillo College Nursing Division will present the nursing graduates for the spring 2010 semester in an upcoming pinning ceremony...
Badgerama, the annual spring carnival, is right around the corner.
The event will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 29 at Memorial Park next to Amarillo College’s Washington Street Campus...
After being disengaged from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development for a number of years, Amarillo College has reactivated its membership with the organization...
The Amarillo College student media department is accepting applications for paid staff positions for the fall semester.
Students working for the newspaper are offered a hands-on opportunity to experience what it is like to work in a newsroom environment...
A lot must be done to ensure that Amarillo College students who apply for graduation are ready to do so...
The Amarillo College board of regents has approved raising tuition because of a lack of state funding and increased student enrollment...
The annual LITE Scholarship Luncheon will take place at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Heritage Room of the Amarillo Civic Center...
Next week, the Amarillo College Engineering Society will host a design competition...
Amarillo College hosted the University Interscholastic League’s competition for District 7-1A last Friday...
The 2010 primary election was Tuesday, and with the race for governor continuing until November, the Amarillo College Campus Conservatives are campaigning to get more students involved in politics...
Local youths to perform The Jungle Book
The AC Lamplight Youth Theatre will present The Jungle Book throughout this weekend. The non-profit program offers theatrical training to children and teenagers from ages 6 to 18.
Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. All presentations will be at the Amarillo Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts.
Tickets cost $10 for adults, $8 for students and $5 for children. For tickets, call 378-3096.
Relationship expert to speak at AC
Hasani Pettiford will speak at noon Monday on “Sex in the College: How to Balance Boyfriend, Books and Girlfriend.” The event will be in the Oak Room of the College Union Building on the Washington Street Campus.
Pettiford is a well-known motivational speaker as well as a relationship expert. According to his Web site, “His presentations bring about immediate changes and long-term results.”
The lecture is open to students, and free pizza will be provided. For more on Pettiford, visit www.hasani.com.
Tickets on sale for LITE Luncheon
The Living Independently Through Education scholarship program will host its annual luncheon April 6. Tickets are available to the public for $15 in advance or $20 at the door...
Every month, Amarillo College honors a member of its faculty with the Badger of Honor award. The award is given by students and peers to someone in the AC family who merits recognition for efforts toward student involvement...
Graduation is just around the corner for some students and the application deadline is quickly approaching...
Even with Amarillo College having record high enrollment numbers for the past two semesters, the budget needs to be reduced.
Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have called for budget cuts to all state-funded agencies, including community colleges and universities, by 5 percent for the current and future biennium.
Dr. Paul Matney, Amarillo College president, has advised faculty and staff about the proposed budget cuts.
Matney said the budget reduction for the college needs to be around $850,000 for each of the next two years.
In order to maintain that budget, programs across all campuses will see reductions in all aspects of their resources.
One area where the economic pinch will be felt is in college travel expenses...
Parking lot. Classroom. Parking lot. Otherwise known as the “PCP,” the dreaded curse that befalls many first-year college students.
A more politically correct description of PCP is the issue of a new student’s inability to involve themselves with the college.
It could determine a first-year student’s likelihood for continuing his or her education goals and subsequent graduation, said April Sessler, associate dean of enrollment management.
“If a student doesn’t make a connection with another person, be it a faculty member or peers, chances for success will plummet,” Sessler said.
Financial situations, personal issues, time management and being academically underprepared are only a few problems that first-year students may come across.
Joshua Yarbrough, a general studies major, is in his second semester at AC.
Yarbrough said the only problem he has come across is “how it conflicts with my work schedule and how I am limited to the amount of time I can study.”
The average ages for first-year students differ at AC from some other colleges. Freshmen aged 25 to 26 are a higher percentage than at many schools, while a third of AC’s students are under 21.
“Many problems students face are related to their stage of life, not just their age,” Sessler said...
The 27 members of the Amarillo College Student Government Association will be headed to Corpus Christi April 22-25.
The SGA members will attend the 40th annual Texas Junior College Student Government Association Region 1 meeting. The SGA is running for the presidency and for parliamentarian.
“Amarillo College currently has seven different officers on the TJCSGA board,” said Heather Atchley, director of student activities.
The TJCSGA has 55 community colleges across Texas who make up its membership. It is the only organization that works to promote the cause of community college students on the local, regional, state and national levels.
Students involved in SGA and who attend the TJCSGA meetings influence the decisions made regarding community colleges across Texas.
Annual Writer’s Roundup set this weekend
The 12th annual Writer’s Roundup will take place Saturday in 101 Ordway Hall.
The competition is open to students enrolled in an Amarillo College English course.
Deadline for registration is 11 a.m. Friday. Registration forms can be submitted in 103 Ordway Hall.
Writers can opt to compete in three categories: developmental, freshman or sophomore. Prize money will be given to winners in each category.
The event is sponsored by the Amarillo College English department. For more information, visit 101 or 103 Ordway Hall or call 371-5170 or 371-5174...
Lisa Meehan is on a mission to reshape Amarillo College’s mortuary science program. As the program’s new director, she has taken steps to improve the program so it may regain accreditation from the American Board of Funeral Service Education.
“Funeral service is a calling, and I was called my sophomore year of college with my grandmother’s death,” Meehan said. “I went from pre-med to pre-dead.”
Meehan was active in the Oklahoma Funeral Director’s Association and served as District II governor. She began teaching at AC in 2005 as a part-time online instructor.
“I fell in love with teaching so much,” she said. “When a full-time position was needed in fall of 2006, I applied.
“I was hired and moved with my three children here from Broken Arrow, Okla. I never have skipped a beat since the move.”
The program, which recently moved to Allied Health, lost its accreditation Sept. 2 after the student exam scores fell below the minimum requirements.
In order to maintain accreditation, “there are a number of qualifications that include curriculum content, faculty qualifications, financial ability of the institution to support the program, success on national board examinations, facilities and so forth,” said Dr. Michael Smith, executive director of ABFSE. Smith said AC’s outlook for the program is positive.
“I am optimistic that candidacy, the first step toward becoming accredited, will be approved at the April 2010 meeting of the committee on accreditation and that accreditation may be restored as early as October.”...
Amarillo College’s communications and marketing team has launched a new initiative to increase awareness of the school. In mid-December, nine triangular aluminum signs were hung along Washington Street.
“The signs are a concerted effort to create college spirit,” said Ellen Robertson Green, dean of college communications and marketing.
The three-sided signs are eight feet tall and 2½ feet wide. They are installed on the streetlights along Washington Street, which are owned by the city of Amarillo. As a result, the city and Xcel Energy were a part of the process and had to work together to make the effort successful.
“It took a full day and a half to install the signs,” recalled Jena McFall, AC graphic art coordinator.
From different angles, a passerby will see either the phrases “Creating Futures,” “Changing Lives” or an image of AC’s redesigned badger, created by Kevin White, a designer in Kalamazoo, Mich.
“The goal of the signs is to create an awareness of the campus while driving by and to develop a sense of pride among our current students,” Green said. “It also reminds the community of the positive impact we are making.”...
Amarillo College is making changes to give students, faculty and staff access to the latest technology. The AC Information Technology Services Division has been busy installing new equipment and making plans for more improvements.
Installation of “smart” classrooms is one of the improvements, and Room 106 in the West Campus’s B building is an example. What makes that classroom so smart is the unassuming podium standing off to the side in the front of the room.
Nursing Instructor Marianne Jones, leads her lessons using PowerPoint and sometimes accesses the Internet during a lesson.
Jones and other instructors using the podiums can access their files from USB drives or an AC server through the Windows or OS X operating systems.
They can choose between DVD, VHS, laptop or iPod (all complete with audio), switching between the devices with one push of a button. Any device selected is automatically projected onto a large screen at the front of the classroom.
“We try to make it as easy as pressing a button so multiple types of media can be used to form one cohesive message in a lecture,” said Luke Bivins, a Technology Information Center field support technician...
League to host candidate event
The Amarillo League of Women Voters will host a “Meet the Candidates” reception Monday.
An informal meeting of the candidates will begin at 5:45 p.m. followed by the program at 6:30 p.m.
The event will give the public an opportunity to know who is running for state representative, the state board of education, the U.S. House of Representatives, judicial positions, county commissioners and other county offices – and their platforms – and thus be able to cast more informed votes, said Barbara Cheek, LWV voter service vice president.
The event will be in the large meeting room off Center Court at Sunset Center at 3701 Plains Blvd. Those attending can enter from the north or east parking lots.
For more information call Lou Ann Garrett at 373-8289 or Barbara Cheek at 383-5848.
Russia lectures scheduled today
The 2010 Creative Mind Humanities Lecture Series will offer two “Russia: Past, Present and Future” lectures today.
The first, “Stalin: Modern Dictator or Medieval Despot?,” will be at 12:30 p.m. in the Oak Room of the College Union Building on the Washington Street Campus.
The second, “It’s Not Business, Sonny, It’s Personal”, will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Business & Industry Center auditorium at 1314 S. Polk St.
The free lectures are sponsored by Wendy Marsh...
The deadline for submissions to the Freelancer publication is March 25. All affiliates of Amarillo College have the opportunity to showcase their talents among their peers. From original poetry to essays, the Freelancer hosts all types of writing.
“This is one of the best opportunities for writers to showcase their talents, get exposure, build a portfolio and get real-world experience,” said Margie Waguespack, an English professor and Freelancer chairwoman.
The publication has helped encourage students to enter larger competitions. One student whose work was published was Barbara Logan. She was encouraged by her creative writing professor, Daniel Ferguson, to submit her work to the Freelancer.
Logan’s submissions not only won her a place in the Freelancer in 2008 but in 2009. Success with the Freelancer prompted her to compete in a national writing competition, where she emerged triumphant.
“It was extremely gratifying to be published and a great honor to represent Amarillo College and the professors who had helped along the way,” Logan said...
With the 2009-2010 school year’s record enrollment, the workload at the Amarillo College Bookstore has doubled as the number of books required by faculty members grows.
Also on the rise are student complaints about price and availability.
“The books are overpriced,” said general studies major Kerstin Adams.
But campus officials maintain that the prices are offset by overall tuition costs.
“Any margin goes back to the AC business office to keep tuition low and assist in maintaining the budget of college programs for students,” said bookstore manager Dennis Leslie.
According to Leslie, the college aims to keep book prices fair by often directly contacting the publisher to minimize costs by requesting paperback as well as black-and-white editions.
Aside from pricing, students usually report good interaction with the bookstore and its staff...
Retired Baseball Hall of Fame member Cal Ripken Jr. will be the featured speaker Tuesday night for Amarillo College’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Ripken is famous for his 21-year run as shortstop and third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles and his record-breaking 2,632 consecutive games played.
“He’s a great example of how perseverance and hard work can lead to success,” said Heather Atchley, director of student activities.
According to Atchley, the purpose of the Distinguished Lecture Series is to expose students and the community to notable speakers from areas and cultures outside the Texas Panhandle.
The event is coordinated and sponsored by the Student Government Association. Ripken will be the first professional athlete to be the featured speaker.
“He’s a great athlete, and I think that will click with the community,” said Andrew Henry, SGA programming chair...
The Creative Minds Humanities Lecture Series started off with a bang with this year’s topic of “Russia: Past, Present, and Future.”
The Merely Players, a local theatrical group, showed those attending its Jan. 14 performance a lesser-known comical side of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s productions.
“Based on the laughter from the audience, I’d say the audience enjoyed the plays quite a bit,” said Joan Urban, humanities program coordinator.
The series lectures were founded 27 years ago by humanities Professor Carol Nicklaus when she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was asked to match it with fundraising. The grant has been helpful and successful each year since.
According to Urban, a topic is chosen each year by faculty of AC’s humanities program, and experts on that topic are brought in each spring to enlighten the campus and local community...
The 2010-2011 Common Reader decision is down to the final five books.
The Common Reader program unites the campus by providing a common discussion topic. As a book is selected for all to read, students are encouraged to read along with the selection committee.
“Free copies can be found here,” said Courtney Milleson, an assistant professor at the Advising and Counseling Center.
The final five books are:
When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen, Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley, Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America by Helen Thorpe and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, which was discussed on Jan. 22.
The remaining books will be discussed Friday Feb. 19, March 5 and March 12. The Friday and March 12 discussions will be at noon in room 113 of the library...
Two Amarillo College officials were presented with awards of personal achievement at a luncheon sponsored by the Amarillo Globe-News on Jan. 27.
President Paul Matney was the recipient of the 2009 Globe-News Headliner Award, and AC Regent Lilia Escajeda was honored as Globe-News Woman of the Year.
The Headliner Award, started in 2004, is given to individuals whose contributions to the community are recognized by the Globe-News.
Matney is a former AC student and the current president.
He has been employed by the college since 1979 as an instructor, chairman of the Language, Communication and Fine Arts Division and vice president of instruction. Matney served as acting president with the illness and death of former college president, Dr. Steven Jones.
Matney was named the 13th AC president in July 2009...
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