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Student photography exhibited at Royal Oak campus

 Works by students in the photography program at Oakland Community College’s Royal Oak Campus are on exhibit in the campus’s main hallway between B and D Buildings now through Dec. 4.

Admission is open and free to the public.

The exhibit features 61 examples of black and white, color and digital images. Some are for sale.

The exhibit takes place three times a year, or once a term, for a month and features digital and traditional photography from photography classes.

The Royal Oak campus is at 739 South Washington Street at Lincoln (10 ½ Mile Road). Free parking is available in college structures across the street from the campus. To learn more call 248-246-2633.

County Executive Visits Management Class

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson spoke to an OCC management class Monday night, focusing on what it takes to a build a strong, loyal team.

Patterson spoke to a class of 24 students taught by OCC adjunct faculty Cynthia Peterson at the Highland Lakes campus. Peterson is also a county employee—she trains and supports police officers in the technology they use in their jobs.

Brooks, who has been County Executive since 1992, says his team is well recognized and sought after by others around the state and credits them for his continued success.

A good leader is born to lead but is also good at applying life lessons to their work, Patterson told students. Leaders will express their vision, set expectations and “get out of the way” so others can do their job, he said.

“As long as everyone is rowing in the same direction, goals will be reached,” he added.

Patterson spoke about some of his team’s top accomplishments, saying he is most proud of the county’s Emerging Sectors program, whose goal was to bring high-tech, knowledge-based sector jobs to Oakland County. These emerging sectors include healthcare, automotive, robotics and automation, and communications and information technology.

 

In one example, the initiative predicted job growth in healthcare and programs were created to fit this prediction. One in five employees in Oakland County currently has a healthcare-related job. More than 60% of new jobs in Oakland County are in economic sectors identified in Patterson’s Emerging Sectors program.

He concluded by saying that good leaders need to be willing to “plant seeds and let them grow.”

Praising staff is important, he added. “I always credit my staff when it’s time to recognize good work.”

OCC Chancellor Chairs MCCA Presidents Committee

Chancellor Tim Meyer is the new chair of the Presidents Committee of the Michigan Community College Association.

“I am proud to have been chosen to represent my peers in this leadership role,” Dr. Meyer said. “I will work with my peers to advocate for policies that benefit community colleges across the state, representing a unified voice in Lansing to benefit our communities and our students.”

The Michigan Community College Association provides leadership on issues concerning the association’s 28 member colleges, which have a combined total annual enrollment of 473,307. The MCCA provides legislative and government advocacy for its members colleges. Its members benefit from initiatives that leverage the combined efforts of multiple colleges, resulting in more efficient and effective programs.

Dr. Meyer was appointed chairperson of the Presidents Committee this summer and will serve until 2015. The Presidents Committee exchanges ideas on the role of community college’s chief administrators and discusses matters of mutual interest to community college chief administrators.

He is also a member of the association’s Executive Committee. He was appointed to that six-year term in 2011. The Executive Committee of the association is composed of MCCA officers, the Trustees Committee, the Presidents Committee and the association’s immediate past chairperson. The Executive Committee prepares an annual budget for approval by the MCCA’s Board of Directors before the beginning of the fiscal year for which the budget is proposed.  The committee serves as a planning committee for the association and supervises and evaluates the president. 

OCC Women's Volleyball NJCAA D-II National Championship Schedule

The 2013 NJCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Tournament will kick off at Owens Community College near Toledo on Thursday, November 21 in the Student Health and Activities Center.

Sixteen teams from around the country have qualified for this year's Championships. The 2011 champion Cowley County Community College from Arkansas City, Kansas is the tournament's top-seed with an overall record of 31-4. Defending National Champion, Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College (31-6) will look to repeat as the No. 10 seed.

Here are the first-round matches for Thursday, November 21:
Match 1 -        #3 - Johnson County (Kan.) vs. #14 - Hagerstown (Md.)     Court 1       9:00 am
Match 2 -        #6 - Glendale (Ariz.) vs. #11 - Des Moines Area (Iowa)       Court 2       9:00 am
Match 3 -        #7 - Catawba Valley (N.C.) vs. #10 - Grand Rapids (Mich.)   Court 1     11:00 am
Match 4 -        #2 - Parkland (Ill.) vs. #15 - Moraine Valley (Ill.)                 Court 2     11:00 am
Match 5 -        #1 - Cowley County (Kan.) vs. #16 - East Central (Mo.)       Court 1       1:00 pm
Match 6 -        #8 - Monroe College (N.Y.) vs. #9 - Central (Neb.)               Court 2        1:00 pm
Match 7 -        #5 - Illinois Central (Ill.) vs. #12 - Southwestern (Iowa)        Court 1        3:00 pm
Match 8 -        #4 - Oakland (Mich.) vs. #13 - South Suburban (Ill.)             Court 2        3:00 pm
Tickets are for sale on the day of the event at the Student Health and Activities Center. 
3-Day Tournament Pass - $35
1-Day Tournament Pass - $15
Children 12-and-under - $5/day
All matches will be streamed for free on NJCAA TV.com
For complete tournament results and information, click here

OCC Creative Team Shines at District Conference

OCC made its mark at the annual National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) District 3 Conference held earlier this month. 
The conference, “Journey to a Brave, New Marketing World,” was organized by Michele Kersten-Hart, OCC’s Manager of Multimedia and Web Services and NCMPR’s District 3 Director. District 3 encompasses Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio. More than 70 people attended the conference.

OCC’S creative team won three awards in the “Printed Publications” category of the conference’s Medallion Awards ceremony, more than any other college in its division. Division B encompasses all colleges with three or more full time marketing and communications staff. OCC won a Silver award for its academic catalog, a Bronze award for its schedule and a Silver award for the music student showcase flier.

Members of the creative team are Manager of Multi Media and Web Services Michele Kersten-Hart, Multi-Media Coordinator Dawn McDonald-Watkins and designers Alan Crouse, Alejandro Herrera and Christine Lasiewicki.

“I am thrilled for our very talented creative team,” Kersten-Hart said. “It was a successful conference for many reasons but especially because of the great work of our graphics team. I’m so proud to lead such a talented team. They made OCC shine at the district conference.”

The conference offered a dozen breakout sessions ranging from creating an integrated marketing plan, writing for the web, to diversifying your digital footprint. 

This is Kersten-Hart’s last year as District 3 Director, a two-year post. Next year, she will be a member of the NCMPR’s Executive Counsel.

NCMPR represents marketing and public relations professionals at community and technical colleges. An affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges, NCMPR has more than 1,550 members from more than 650 colleges across the United States, Canada and other countries.

Raider Rally Wednesday!

Help send off OCC's women's volleyball team to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II national tournament Nov. 21-23 at Owens Community College in Ohio.
A rally will be held from 10-10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 20 at the Auburn Hills Student Center. The rally is held in conjunction with Student Government and Student Life.

Students will be able to meet volleyball coaches and players before they depart for  Owens Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio. The Raider's first game is at 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 21.
 
It will be telecast live on this website: http://www.njcaatv.com/volleyballchamp/.
Follow #occraiders for updates.

 

For this woman, home was Highland Hall

When Merle Hardman read a newspaper article recently about the upcoming demolition of Highland Hall on OCC’s Highland Lakes campus in Waterford, she rushed out to see if she could see it one more time. Hardman lived in the building for two and a half years starting at the age of 5.

Built in 1927, Highland Hall was known as the Oakland County Tuberculosis Sanatorium in its early days, housing patients with the disease. The hospital included a children’s wing.

Hardman (formerly Burgdorf) lost both of her parents to TB. She and an older sister Gabrielle Bates, now 94 and living in Harrison, were also diagnosed with the disease and sent to live in Highland Hall soon after it opened in 1928. Hardman, now 89, lived there until 1930.

“Rest, fresh air, cod liver oil and sunshine were the only treatments for TB,” Hardman, of White Lake, said recently as she walked through the halls where she remembers getting into trouble as a kid.

Hardman’s tour included her niece Nancy Van Hull (Burgdorf), retired nursing OCC faculty and Hardman's friend Sherrill Sundberg, Interim Highland Lakes Campus President Cynthia Roman and Chief Engineer Ken Reynolds.

Hardman took many photos with a disposable camera, her facial expressions alternating from confusion by the changed surroundings to glee when recognizing a certain window she remembers hanging out of as a kid seeking mischief.

She toured the building’s cafeteria, a basement tunnel she remembers traversing as a kid and the hospital floor where she spent so much time.

“We were all bored to tears,” she chuckled. “There was very little for kids to do. Nurses didn’t allow us out of bed and there was no school or homework.”

“The nuns came out on Saturday and taught catechism,” she added. “I do remember having one book. It was about fruit, bananas, oranges and plums, but that’s it.”

After she left the sanatorium, Hardman went to live with her grandparents, who adopted her. She worked at General Motors for 30 years.

When a cure for TB was found in the 1950s, the patient population at Highland Hall dwindled. In late 1964, the buildings and property were sold to OCC. The 68,741-square foot building had been used for classroom space since then. It closed permanently last year. The college spends $50,000 a year to keep it running and demolishing it will present a cost savings, Roman said. The space will be used as a student commons area.  

“She wanted a brick,” said her niece Van Hull, who attended the tour of Highland Hall with Hardman and whose father Floyd Babcock was the first general manager of the sanatorium. “You can imagine what it must be like as a child to be taken out of your home and sent to an institution. I can’t even imagine the impact. But she is one of the most positive people I have ever known in my life.”

“It was something for her to go through there,” she said of the recent tour. “When she stood there, she did feel it and remember it.”

“She was healthy as a horse her whole life,” Van Hull added. “That’s the amazing thing —she and my aunt both were, and they started their lives in a TB sanatorium.”

Chancellor presides over Detroit Economic Club event

OCC Chancellor, Dr. Timothy R. Meyer, was the Presiding Officer for the Congressional Representative Update at the Detroit Economic Club on November 4.

The mission of Detroit Economic Club (DEC) is to provide a platform for the debate and discussion of the great business, government and social issues of the day.

Guest speakers included The Honorable Sander Levin, Michigan U.S. Congressional Representative Dist. 9 and The Honorable Mike Rogers, Michigan U.S. Congressional Representative Dist. 8 U.S. House of Representatives.

Find What You Need With a Click of the Mouse

Searching the OCC library just got easier.

You can now find books, articles, and more with the stroke of a key. Search Everything, new to OCC this fall, is a seamless way to find almost anything at the OCC Libraries.
 
You can find online and print materials, including:

• Books, videos and other materials available for checkout in the OCC Library Catalog
• Online full-text magazine, newspaper, and journal articles from more than 30 databases
• Ebooks, streaming videos, and images

How do you get there?

Go to the OCC Libraries page here. Scroll to the Search Everything tab and add your search words into the search box. On the next screen, select from as many options as you would like to narrow down your results.   Searches can be limited by format, date, related subjects, OCC location, publication name or database. 

Use Search Everything if:

• You don’t know where to start your research
• You want to go beyond results from your searches in other databases or the Library Catalog
• You would like to see results sorted by relevancy rather than date
• You would like to see an overview of what’s available at OCC
• You would like to search multiple databases at once

Do not use Search Everything if:

• You need more precise results from subject headings in the Library Catalog or databases
• You are searching for a topic covered in a specialized database. For example, some OCC research databases are not included in Search Everything, such as the Wall Street Journal.
• If you are looking for a specific book or article. The Library Catalog is best if you know the book you want, and the OCC Library Journals List is the best place to find a known article.

Do you still prefer the old library catalogue?

The classic Find Books/Library Catalog is still available to you.
Separate databases can also still be searched from the Find Articles/Databases page. 

How can I learn more?  

Watch a video demonstration by clicking here.

Noah's Ark - A Play about the Assassination of JFK

Inspired by activist, theologian, writer James Douglass' book "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he Died and Why it Matters," Noah's Ark sails the rough waters of the Kennedy presidency -- its Bay of Pigs, the summit with Khrushchev in Vienna, a line in the sand in Berlin, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the prelude to Vietnam -- to reveal the depths and shallows of humanity, drama, fears, and passion at the heart of these world events.
 
The reading of Noah's Ark at Oakland Community College on November 8 occurs in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. Royal Oak, Michigan is one of seven cities where readings of Noah's Ark readings will take place in November, including New York City; Erie, Pennsylvania;  Pittsburgh, Pa; Birmingham, Alabama; Glen Falls, New  York; and Dallas, Texas, where actor Martin Sheen will participate.

The president is dead and Colonel Benson, the consummate military White House insider, is tortured by the thought that he may have been unwittingly complicit in the assassination.

Determined to redeem himself, Benson journeys into his past, where he must confirm or deny his loyalties, patriotism, and faithfulness. Has he betrayed his values? Can he live in peace with his choices?

About Ginny Cunningham: As a founding member of the Pittsburgh Public Theatre Playwrights in 1995, Pittsburgh native Ginny Cunningham wrote a series of ten-minute and one-act plays before undertaking the full length On Earth a Little Space, which was featured in City Theatre's Four x Four new play festival at the Hamburg Theater in 2001. While maintaining a career as a communications consultant to non-profits throughout the U.S., as well as free lance magazine and newspaper writing, Cunningham continued to churn out plays. Mere Woman, the third in a series of plays that dramatized the lives of Catholic nuns who challenged sexist and racist practices in their Church and society, has had multiple readings in the Pittsburgh region. Noah's Ark has been in development for three years. Cunningham resides in Pittsburgh with her husband Pat Fenton.

Do not miss a reading of Noah's Arc featuring OCC faculty, staff and students at at 7:30 p.m., Friday, November 8, at the Royal Oak Campus Theatre.

The play is preceded by a 4 p.m. lecture by JFK assassination expert James Douglass, author of JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. Douglass will explain his belief that JFK was murdered due to the change in his position on the Cold War and increasing support for peace in the world.

Tickets for both events may be purchased online by clicking here and between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. at OCC’s Royal Oak Campus Bookstore.