Howdy peeps! I am always amazed and impressed (neither suggesting in a good way or bad, just being objective) at how fast some news can travel in such a short period of time at our college.
Just when I thought all was good, along comes this investigative report titled Hard to See City College’s True Colors from Carol Marin and company over at NBC Chicago. Take a looksee and talk amongst yourselves.
From the printed version of the report:
As a part of Reinvention, the Central Office mandated that all schools change their colors. In some cases it was a very minor change. Malcolm X for instance went from one shade of red to another shade of red. (See the adjacent chart to compare) The total cost—plus a new slogan: $50,000. Or about the same as three adjunct professors at the current rate.
I was not able to embed the video so you’ll have to click on the link. There’s a bonus video clip titled ‘Emanuel Lauds City Colleges’ if you go to the main story. Spin city at work so soon? I dunno.
The Harold Lounge 
Cheryl states that the color changes at the colleges have increased site hits or activity. Where’s the data to prove causation? The economy was spiraling downward, and more students were choosing community college over university when the colors changed. Did that play a part in more people searching for information on CCC?
I have to admit something… I was on the fence about the website based upon reports from my friends. Then I heard about the new colors on the website, so I decided to give it a chance. Upon seeing the colors I became convinced (nearly hypnotized in fact) that this was a site I must visit again and again. From what I hear, that previous shade of red was dreadful. The Harold Washington neon orange is like a beacon on a dark night surfing the web.
P.S. I hear that no copies can be made a la minute. That seems like a strange thing to do during the first week of classes.
First off: hilarious post. Love it.
Second, our copier has been non functional for two days. Then today, I saw someone who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent programming in our copy codes (like in the old days). I asked him how many copies we’d get this year. He said, “Around a hundred, maybe two hundred–district office said they don’t want classroom work being copied on these.”
In a typical semester, I start out with 170 or so students. Once they take away the printers, I’m going to be screwed. Or, more precisely, completely unable to take advantage of opportunities to help my students out a little when they don’t have the scratch to pay 10 cents a page in the computer lab and totally unable to take spontaneous/short term turnaround advantage of learning opportunities.
Do you think we can get a grant for making copies?
“Around a hundred, maybe two hundred–district office said they don’t want classroom work being copied on these.”
That’s perfect. I can use them to make copies of the rules for my club. Oops. I almost broke the first rule just then. If not for classroom work, then what? Recreational doodles, scrapbooks, body parts?
Why, reports, of course. You know, documenting the excellence of our teaching and our student and learning centered focus (now with less paper!).
I don’t think 100 copies will be enough. Graphs take up a lot of space. I can get on the bandwagon I suppose. They say that print is dead anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3v_ogRaTf4
Thanks for getting this up, Realist. You beat me to it.
And thanks, belatedly, to the people who sent me pointers today. Sorry for the delay; I didn’t want to post it from school.
No problem, PhiloDave. You and CASTman have beat me to a few in the past; and that’s always a good thing. It’s all about getting a discussion going.
Thanks, as always, for The Harold Lounge.