How Is LB Measuring Up?

Almost a year since the new Madrone hall opened and innovations are still underway, i.e. the solar terrace in the courtyard. With the promises of energy efficient windows and words like sustainability thrown around how has the improvements helped the College really?
The college dedicates an entire section in the "About LBCC" tab on their homepage. The page, defining sustainability uses the new campus icon as its home picture as it lauds the college's effort to become more sustainable and less wasteful. Its obvious that big picture we are succeeding as a college and new ideas and buildings come into light. The new student's for sustainability club is a glowing example of students taking initiative on this as well as the all staff committee already in place. So how far have we come?



Who: LBCC
What: Sustainability as a cost reducer
Where: LBCC
When: One year after the opening of Madrone
Why: Because its a good measuring stick?

Toni Klohk: Coordinator for Diversity Achievement Center

Toni Klohk, the enthusiastic coordinator of the Diversity Achievement Center (DAC) on the Linn Benton Community College campus, met with a class to talk about what she does and the involvement of the D.A.C on the LBCC campus. The Center is located on the second floor of the Forum Building on campus in F-220 and is open nine am to three pm Monday through Friday although Klohk was quick to point out that if a service is really needed there is staff in the room until 5 if you just knock. The Center's goal is to promote understanding and acceptance; according to Klohk the idea is to "provide students opportunity to experience cultures they haven't".
Klohk also pointed out that our idea of diversity is often a narrow one and we need to "broaden the definition [of diversity] to include everyone": rich, poor, hungry, fed, even what hobbies or interests bring us together in small subcultures. In an effort to bring these cultures the Center puts on various events throughout the school year. Already they have had their hands in a handful of events on campus including the Gay Straight Alliance's bullying event and Rocky Horror Picture Show screening.
According to Klohk the attendance of these events varies year to year and even term to term. She went on to say that at LB right now there is a very active community that has shown support for many of the 25 clubs on campus. Although she did admit it was unfortunate that the Latino club that has been at LB wasn't able to carry on this year.
Students, Klohk said, are what make this all happen. The Diversity Achievement Center is made up of just one staff member and six student leaders. Students drive many of the clubs on campus and often dictate how well a message is received and they are often a measuring stick of how diversity is handled on campus. The point that Klohk stressed was that more students need to be involved, the door is always open to the Center and anyone can drop by to talk, let go, vent and generally converse about the direction the college takes. "Everything is going right," right now but it is up to student involvement to keep it that way.

Blue Scholars Rock The WOW Hall

A teeming crowd, jumping up and down singing in unison could be heard in the street surrounding the WOW Hall Thursday and Friday night. The Blue Scholars, a hip-hop group out of Seattle Washington, played two shows at Eugene's WOW Hall Oct 22-23. The group, comprised of rapper Geologic and DJ Sabzi, returned to the WOW Hall for the first time since their debut show at the Hall last April.

The band was opened by local act Undermind and KI and then Minneapolis group Grieves and Budo. The two bands were a solid opening act that built up the energy leading to the main event. Both Undermind and Grieves and Budo were able to get the crowd involved and showed off some unknown talents that the growing crowd took a liking to. Undermind and KI were a more traditional hip hop group with a DJ and a local taste. Grieves and Budo were a new twist on the standard sound as Budo served as DJ as well as guitarist, trumpeter and synthesizer that turned out a unique sound that few other groups are able to pull off.

The Blue Scholars took the stage as the Hall was approaching three-quarters full. The show featured songs off of all of their albums but not forgetting to focus on the popular songs that people had come to recognize them by. Both Geologic and Sabzi spent a large amount of time front and center on the stage, minimal DJ-ing done by Sabzi as they got everyone into the mood and as the crowd sang with the band constantly. The finished their set with "Joe Metro" a Seattle based song about public transportation and the characters in the city, and by far the most popular song.

This, of course, is not the first show the Blue Scholars have played they were at the WOW Hall last April. The popularity of the show caused them to add a second date this time. According to Bob Fennessy, the WOW Hall publicist, the Blue Scholars have "developed a loyalty to the Hall and want to support us because we are a nonprofit all ages venue." After selling out that first billing at the Hall the Scholars chose to return this year instead of moving up to the larger McDonald Theater just a few blocks away. The show was advertised in most local media with special tickets given out to University of Oregon Radio KWVA and Oregon State's radio station KBVR also advertised online heavily.

The band's progressive rap style is centered on Northwest lifestyle and attitude. Their music is an eclectic grouping of pop-culture references and ideas taken from the news and the way the world really is according to their website. Similarly the WOW Hall is a relic to the old industries of Eugene and the greater Northwest. The seventy-eight year old venue kept and intimate setting for the show which allowed the energetic, if not smaller, crowd a close interaction to the bands. The interaction was so intimate that by the end of the Blue Scholars' set about a third of the crowd was on stage with them with no issue or bum rush by security.

The Scholars are very Northwest orientated, but they do have experience playing at larger venues, in fact they recently returned from playing in New York. Sabzi was able to talk briefly about it and said that despite being the other side of the country they still were playing to an audience of "about six-hundred and about thirty percent of them were from Oregon or Washington." The unique music that is very specific to one area is appealing to "people who are interested in learning about other places" according to Sabzi and he went on to point out that for many of us we continually identify with new places as we grow and move on. Needless to say the band is appealing to new audiences constantly and moving in the right direction.

Blue Scholars "JOE METRO" Music Video from Zia Mohajerjasbi on Vimeo.

Who: Blue Scholars

What: Hip Hop Group from Seattle

Where: The WOW Hall in Eugene, OR

When: Oct 22-23

Why: Promotion and Performance at a popular hall

Top 100 (22) Things

Julie Moos of Poynter Online has started a Top 100 Things Journalists should never do. Its an interesting idea that uses tweeting to gather suggestions, anything from what not to do on dates to lessons in ethics. There were a few that stuck out as interesting to me.
Rebekah Monson, a journalist for the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, advises us to strive for context rather than information because we always will have lots of information but not necessarily context. It's an interesting way to separate out the sometimes massive amount of information and just stuff that can accumulate for one story.
One that I really liked is know the audience. It was their number one and often times I think it is overlooked. I have read stories by college newspaper writers, local writers and syndicated writers that at some point seem to lack an audience or if they start out with one in mind it switches during the article.
A fairly straight forward one but "Never let publishing be the end, make it another beginning, engage with the audience before, during and after publication." Mostly self explanatory but its vitally important now in the digital age. Whatever we write that goes into the great public forum is subject to ridicule and questioning. The discussion can end with what you've already said but it can also continue on and on when people are willing to talk (an important side note: this doesn't mean getting drawn into pointless arguing via blog-comments section is an "open discussion").

Facebook Keeps Chat History

A new article here from MSN's Technolog. That reveals that Facebook users can no longer delete their chat history. The author, Athima Chansanchai, seems somewhat vexed by this but more on a personal convenience level than an outrage over limiting our freedom level. I will say that I am no fan of Facebook, I do have an account that I basically never use. I do find it interesting though how afraid we seem to get whenever Facebook or any website really, tries to limit the abilities we have as users.
As a culture we spout volumes of things into the great unknown of the internet and we never really know where it all goes. Everything from emails to credit card numbers we float around in cyberspace trusting, generally, that everything will be okay and that we are safe from people snooping about us. Generally we are, but the fact is we expose ourselves in the anonymity of the internet in very personal ways that we would never do in real life. We do it without thinking, we email dirty jokes and pictures, we say ridiculous things and we act irresponsibly. The difference is, usually we have no idea that we are being watched, there is no trust issue because we never really think much of Yahoo, GMail and many of the other sites. The email providers we use are like a telephone always there, taking care of everything, and you don't ever think of it as something you have to be skeptical of because these things just are what they are, they are place holders for the information that we need, they don't have a soul.
Thus entered Facebook. Facebook was unique because it has personality, not only can we link of up with old friends, new friends, red friends, blue friends, it gives us something back, it allows us to poke each other in a way that's not dirty. It gives us access to countless games and therefore countless more potential friends. Facebook wasn't just a switchboard of typed communication it was like a digital mall where we could all meet and hang out whenever we wanted to for as long as we needed. The frustration comes because of the trust, Facebook is the high school best friend that you went to parties with that turned around and stabbed you in the back. It lead us all down the primrose path of how we can show off pictures of how, "I got like dude totally wasted" and it told everyone that it was awesome that we did it.
Now Facebook tries to take away some of the freedoms it allowed us from the beginning, from things like; not really, technically deleting pictures right away. Now its taking away another power, a power we don't have most places online but we appreciate it when we do. It's deflating and demeaning that Facebook doesn't seem to trust us with our own information. Really the answer is that, as a culture, we need to stop sharing our lives online and assume no one will ever know, but until then Facebook will always face an uphill climb when its comes to how much power the user has. Every time the Facebook team tries to limit it, it will be a public relations issue, and it should be because sometimes its nice to be in control.

Students for Sustainability Club Starts Running

The Students For Sustainability Club restarted on the Linn Benton campus after taking a two year hiatus after a rough initial start. The club, centered around moving the campus in the right direction in terms of energy consumption and waste management, is seeing a fairly strong revival according to the advisor Lori Fluge-Brunker. The idea for the club began last spring with a start up petition looking for names of students that would be interested. The initial count was somewhere in the ten to fifteen students and that was before any official meetings had been held.
The goal of the club is to increase the awareness about sustainability on the Linn Benton campus. "The campus is behind" in terms of sustainability Ms. Fluge-Brunker said. Despite having a a campus committee dedicated to sustainability the progress has been slow. The campus serves the students; the idea is that this club will be the voice of the students eliciting changes and hopefully the students can push the campus to new ideas about how to manage waste, recycle, and introduce people to new ways to save energy.






What: The Students for Sustainability club
When they meet: Still TBA but should be sorted out soon
Latest Project: TBA
Contact Info: Advisor Lori Fluge-Brunker 541-917-4411

Concussions

An interesting article from the New York Times here. The debate is how to make football safer, the ensuing discussion is worth reading as well. The interesting point about the discussion is two fold. First that mostly the comments all say the same thing: blah blah softer pads, blah blah, more like rugby, blah blah lots more penalties. Two that some people obviously aren't watching the same football. A concussion can happen in a myriad of ways but one of the big ways is the unexpected hit. Of course leading with the helmet is more dangerous than the shoulder but many many concussions happen when a player (ball carrier, tackler, blocker, etc) doesn't see the hit coming. The best idea by far is the wrapping idea. This ties back into rugby, in rugby the tackler must wrap up the ball carrier and bring them to ground, no shoulder charges, no shoves, no tripping. Its not a safe game though folks, its a dangerous fast paced hard hitting contact sport.

Last thought. A "hit-count" for young players up through high school is a great idea.