After recent renovations, Houghton’s new Alumni House is almost ready to welcome former students and their families.
Previously used for student housing, the Alumni House underwent significant changes to become what President Shirley Mullen, described as a “place on campus set aside specifically for alumni—for them to network among themselves and with students.” Mullen says the house will give returning alumni a place to stay with their families in addition to “making it clear that we value alumni.”
Numerous alumni have contributed to funding the renovations for the house, which Mullen estimated to cost between $550,000 and $600,000. Daniel Noyes, executive director of alumni relations, said that “the project was 100% funded by gifts from alumni, particularly alumni from families who have a strong connection with the college.” The names of rooms in the house honor nine of those families: the Luckey, Essepian-Tysinger, Stevenson, Ries, Larder, White, Mills, Alderman, and Mullen families.
Joshua Derck, building trades leader, said that the renovations on the Alumni House were extensive and included work on walls and ceilings, heating and cooling systems, plumbing and electrical services, and windows, siding, and gutters.
The house also received changes to meet “ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements: a fully accessible room as well as access to the building,” Derck said. “So the updates were for usage and cosmetic. This is a virtually new building.”
Anna Maria Johnson, a 2001 Houghton graduate who lived in the Alumni House while it was still student housing, said that she has “mixed emotions” about the changes to her old home. She talked about the “incredible community” that formed among the women living in what was then called Walldorf House and described the shared dinners, Bible studies, and book discussions that added to her “formative…and meaningful experience” there. However, she also said it is “fun to think that we could come back and have a reunion in the house where we lived.”
In an effort to capture two prominent al-Qaeda members, U.S. forces conducted two raids in Libya and Somalia on October 5. Both members, Anas al-Liby and Abdukadir Mohamed Abdukadir, also known as Ikrima, were wanted for their connections to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people and injured another 5,000. While commandos were able to capture al-Liby, they failed in capturing Ikrima.
The capture of al-Liby is a big success in Washington’s fight against al-Qaeda. According to Al-Jazeera, al-Liby was indicted by the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York in 2000 for his alleged role in planning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998. Currently, al-Liby is being interrogated aboard the USS San Antonio off the coast of Libya. He will be interrogated for sixty days before being transferred to the Federal Court in New York to stand trial. This comes as three U.S. Senators, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte and Saxby Chambliss, wish to send al-Liby to Guantanamo Bay’s detention center for further interrogation. U.S. President Barack Obama, however, is reluctant to send more alleged terrorists to Guantanamo due to a desire to close the detention center which has housed numerous untried accused terrorists for years and received criticism from various human-rights groups.
Meanwhile, the raid in Somalia was unsuccessful. U.S. forces planned to capture Ikrima, a senior commander in al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist terror group that controls large swathes of territory in mostly lawless Somalia. A spokesman for the Pentagon, George Little, told the BBC that Ikrima was closely associated with two now-dead al-Qaeda members Harun Fazul and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who helped with the 1998 embassy bombings and later attacks on a hotel and airline in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002. The raid, however, was aborted after a guard for Ikrima’s compound in the coastal Somali town of Barawe sounded an alarm. Out of concern for heavy civilian and possible American casualties, the commandos withdrew from Barawe and returned to a waiting U.S. ship in the Indian Ocean. Though the commandos managed to kill one al-Shabab fighter, Ikrima was not captured or killed in the process.
The raids against Islamist militants in Libya and Somalia highlight the United States’ increased attention to terror networks operating in many African countries with unstable régimes. According to Reuters, during a press conference on October 8, President Obama made clear that in cases where local governments lack the capacity to fight terror groups, the United States was “going to have to continue to go after them.” Contested political authority has contributed to increased instability across North Africa. With the fall of longtime rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya since the Arab Spring, many al-Qaeda affiliates have taken advantage of the political turmoil and set up operations in these countries. Somalia has become a haven for terror networks, as it has been in near anarchy for over twenty years since the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. Many analysts predict that until authority is reestablished in these unstable countries, the United States will not hesitate to conduct similar operations like in Libya and Somalia in the future.
In an effort to further its mission of global engagement, President Shirley Mullen, along with vice president of admissions, Eric Currie, and vice president of alumni relations, Dan Noyes, embarked on a two-week tour through the People’s Republic of China this past summer. Houghton College currently has preparations underway to increase its presence in Asia, with special focus on China, intending both to increase enrollment of Chinese students and to establish potential study abroad programs and internships for current and future Houghton students. Explaining the college’s rationale for focusing on the area, Mullen said, “I began to realize that both in our recruitment of international students and also in the parts of the world that Houghton grads were most engaged in, we really were doing very little in Asia.”
Initial efforts toward recruitment, though small, were made about a year ago after Houghton partnered with Zinch, an American website which allows prospective college students to browse a database of profiles of American universities and colleges by entering certain credentials. By having Zinch profile the college as part of a weekly spotlight, Chinese Zinch users have also been introduced to the school. Currie says that the college’s partnership with Zinch has worked out well. “We’ve resourced students out of there. Actually, a student here right now came through our Zinch contacts.”
However, faculty and staff involved in the recruitment initiative emphasize that their main strategy is a long-term one with a focus on forging relationships with Chinese schools. Initially considering working with intermediary recruitment agencies, the college decided to pursue other avenues, opting for a more direct and personal approach. “We’re trying to do something more creative than the agent system, and something that is more organic, more systematized, more on the ground, rather than the agent system, where basically institutions pay agents a certain fee for recruiting a Chinese student,” she said. She expressed concern with many of the tactics employed by the agencies. “As I began listening to the ways that a lot of recruitment in China was happening, I began to think, ‘Good grief, there’s going to be a huge reaction to this someday because it just seems so much more sensitive to what to American schools want out of this than what the Chinese people might want out of it.” Another concern was the ability of incoming Chinese students to adapt well to an educational experience in the U.S., something often unaccounted for by agent groups. “These young people sometimes just get sent over by agents and they are left to sink or swim,” Noyes added.
Other possibilities, mostly for Houghton students, have been explored through alumni contacts in China, amongst whom a network has already been developed. “The alumni connections are so strong, going all the way back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, that there’s a real benefit,” said Noyes.
The majority of Chinese alumni being based in Hong Kong, the college is leaning towards initial programs in the area. “We’d like to start with a student or two who are interested in doing an internship in Hong Kong. It would most likely be a business student at this point because of the connections they have,” Noyes said, naming one contact who runs trade shows for a German company in the city and another alum who works for an IT company as two contacts among many. Although initial programs are hoped to be established in Hong Kong, Mainland China is also a possibility. Said Noyes, “Hong Kong is more like low-hanging fruit for us. We have more of an alumni presence there, we have some potential partners there, so it would make some sense to begin there… but as we uncover more, then I think we could also expand to some different places as well.”
In addition to potential expansion to other areas in China, programs for larger groups also remain a possibility. “We’d love to explore a Mayterm there,” said Noyes, “but it takes a little while to build these relationships.”
Those involved in the project are quick to stress that this initiative is still very much a work in progress. “By December or January I will know where we really stand in those two particular areas I’m looking at,” stated Currie. “I would say we would have it moving forward in its strongest development by spring.”
Due to the Kerr-Pegula donation and transition to NCAA division III, Houghton has seen Burke Field completed, the baseball and softball fields nearly done, and the ground-breaking of the field house thus far.
Courtesy of flickr.com
The baseball and softball fields have already been put to use as various teams have begun holding practice on the turf. Additionally, local baseball leagues have already played on the baseball field. While certain finishing touches still have to be made, such as the tower that will overlook the softball pitch and connect to the field house, the fields are now available for use.
Last year, the baseball and softball teams traveled everyday in order to practice on fields in Angelica and Cuba-Rushford, so the completion of the fields at Houghton is eagerly anticipated amongst the players. “We are excited to play on our new beautiful field that is in our own backyard,” said junior softball player Sarah Beirne.
Skip Lord, Executive Director of Athletics, on the subject of the new tower and connected field house, said that “When [the workers] have the main work done on the tower, probably by the middle of October, they will pour the foundations for the [field house] and the concrete slab…for support.”
Jason Mucher, Director of Compliance and Communications, added to this and said that “This building is already pre-[fabricated], all the pieces and components of it are being put together now and designed in the factory. [The construction workers] will bring it here on trucks and connect it sort of like tinker toys.” Speaking to the construction process itself, Lord said that “they are going to put it together in sections, so it will unfold kind of like an accordion.”
Sections of the outdoor structure of the field house should be completed by the time cold weather comes, so that the construction workers can shift their focus to the inside of the field house throughout the winter and spring. Communication between on-site workers and the contractor is frequent and clear, allowing construction plans are adapted as needed to fit the layout of the worksite. Once a solid foundation has been finished, the workers will be able to move out of the ground, and the remainder of the work needed should be more predictable.
In addition to a 200 meter, 8 lane track, jumping pits, tennis courts, and bleachers seating 800-1000 people, the complex will have offices, locker rooms, VIP conference room, fitness center, weight room, training room, kitchen, and concessions stand. While fitting all of these components into one complex does pose challenges, the plans have been drawn up so that all the components fit together accordingly.
The new complex will be multi-functional and while it will directly cater to the athletic teams, students may make use of the fitness center, weight room, courts, etc. The field house itself will be accessible to the entire student body, allowing the intramural program to expand as well as creating more classrooms for the recreation and physical education departments. Lord and Mucher have both explored possible functions and events for the field house once it is completed.
“It is a big community convention center where you can have concerts, speakers, commencement, flea markets. Or those types of thing that require a lot of open space. It has accessibility and food preparation capability,” said Mucher, “So we can hold anything that requires a large area within this region that does not necessarily have anything to do with athletics. It is a service to the region.”
Following the completion of the field house, there are plans to do more renovations to the Nielsen Center. The movement of a number of offices to the new complex will give Nielsen significantly more space. The volleyball team and both basketball teams would have the opportunity to have their own respective team locker rooms. However, this is more of a long-term goal, and would not be put into action until the college has the appropriate funds.
Regarding the completion date of the field house, Lord said, “These things always get pushed around a little bit, but right now it is supposed to be done May 23rd.”
On September 30 this week, at the stroke of midnight, the federal government shut down.
This circumstance is not new to American history. The United States has gone through many partial and full government shutdowns, the most recent occasion taking place in 1995-1996 when Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House and President Clinton was in office. This latest incident, however, involved not only a disagreement between Republicans and Democrats on how to best fund the government, but revealed a growing rift within the GOP as well.
Courtesy of cnn.com
In short, Congress was supposed to approve a budget by 11:59 p.m. on September 30, but failed to do so. This was because Congress could not agree on appropriations bills required. In fact, congressional leaders had seen this trouble coming for a few weeks. As time was beginning to run out, House Republicans proposed a temporary budget plan (what is called a “stopgap measure”) that would give them more time to create a full one. However this plan was created to appeal directly to the hardliners of the party and their conservative base by calling for the defunding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also called Obamacare), the new healthcare plan that was due to take place on October 1, both in exchange for keeping the government running for a few more months. Democrats were overwhelmingly opposed to defunding ACA, as this is President Obama’s keystone legislation, and refused to pass the stopgap measure unless this was stripped from it. In the end, the debate continued and both the House and the Senate voted several more times, but nothing was passed and no agreement was ever reached. The government thus shut down after the due date on October 1.
So what does a government shutdown actually mean? It means that although not all government functions will cease to operate, there will be significant cuts and furloughs across all federal agencies. In sum, according to the Washington Post, an estimated 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed without pay and almost every agency from the Education Department to the FDA will be reduced in some way. National parks, Smithsonian museums, and national monuments will also be closed. Meanwhile, various other government programs, such as the WIC program, will be running on reserve funding, until the government can resolve the budget issue.
The longest that the US has experienced a government shutdown has been three weeks. In normal circumstances, the party that is undergoing the most fallout and political pressure as a result of the shutdown will begin to offer concessions. Many speculate, however, that the high level of partisanship and congressional gridlock experienced in D.C. these past few years (and recent weeks) will protract negotiations. Neither side seems willing to budge and, meanwhile, Republicans seem to be caught in a moment of disunity between the more conservative members of the party and the more moderate members which should add an extra complexity to the negotiations.
Of course, not all federal functions have disappeared. Functions that relate to the well-being of citizens and the security of the country are still being allowed to continue. For example, air traffic controllers will continue working, Social Security checks will continue to be delivered to the elderly, veterans’ hospitals will remain open, and operations like border patrol will remain in place.
Americans on the whole do not approve of the shutdown, with most placing the majority of the blame at the Republicans’ feet. Whether this will be enough to galvanize political leaders to come to a compromise, however, is anyone’s guess.
Last week’s terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya hit me hard. Kenya is my second home. I grew up in that beautiful country. It is a modernized nation where most people attend churches on Sunday and believe strongly in peace. I went to high school there, taught there, married there and two of my children were born there. Some of my children and grandchildren presently live in Nairobi. How can I comprehend the vicious terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall – a place where I dined on roasted chicken last year?
Courtesy of huffingtonpost.com
It started at 12:00 noon local time on Saturday, September 21 – a time when the mall was full of shoppers and diners. Gangs of men wearing black turbans stormed three entrances simultaneously. They threw grenades and fired indiscriminately using high-powered assault rifles. There was pandemonium as people hid or tried to flee. Many were taken as hostages. In some cases the terrorists asked people to name their religion. Muslims were released while Christians were executed. The terrorists ensconced themselves in the inner shops of the 6-story mall. The Kenyan police and army arrived and the battle went on for 4 days and nights. In the end over 1,000 traumatized people managed to escape, but the Kenyan Red Cross has confirmed that 67 people have died, over 150 were wounded and 35 are still unaccounted for. The terrorists were estimated to number about 15. Five of them were eventually killed by Kenyan police and the other 10 were supposedly taken into custody. The mall itself was bombed and completely destroyed.
An Indian blogger stated, “The Westgate Mall atrocity defies analysis.” He is right, but let me try. A shadowy organization named el-Shabab has taken credit for the killings. Who is el-Shabab? They are a radical Muslim group based out of Somalia and are known to have links to al-Qaeda. Somalia has been at civil war for the past 20 years. It is a failed state with various clans fighting for control. Somalia is Kenya’s neighbor to the northeast. During the various phases of the civil war many Somali people (primarily women and children) have fled to refugee camps in Kenya. Dabaab is presently the largest refugee camp in the world with over half a million people squatting in the harsh desert. For a short time in 2010 el-Shabab controlled Somalia. At that point they invaded Kenya, attacking various villages and refugee camps. Kenya regarded this as a violation of their sovereign rights so in 2011 the government sent troops into Somalia to punish el-Shabab. Over time Kenya helped free Kismayu and eventually Mogadishu from el-Shabab. El-Shabab vowed revenge. So this attack on the Nairobi mall can be regarded primarily as revenge, but also as a form of publicity – we are still here and we are dangerous.
There have been small attacks by el-Shabab over the past two years with grenades thrown into public places in Nairobi. Kenya has been on alert with double security checks at the airports and metal detectors at store entrances and at sporting events. But the attack on the mall was much bigger. It was well planned. The terrorists chose a mall that was Israeli owned and was frequented by wealthy Kenyans and foreigners. The terrorists even rented a shop in the mall, giving them passes and free access. They were able to bring in large weapons through the back service elevators. During the 4-day siege they were even in Internet connection with people outside the mall.
So where does Kenya go from here? There are hard questions to be asked. To start with, what has happened to the terrorists taken into custody? Are they being questioned? Did they make some kind of deal? There are rumors that the terrorists escaped through an underground sewer system and have returned to Somalia. There are further rumors stating that some of these terrorists came from Somali communities based in Britain and America. And what about security in the future? In addition to the many Somalis living legally in Nairobi as Kenyan citizens, there are also another 30,000 Somali people living there illegally and over 1 million more living in the Kenyan desert. Documenting people is difficult and the country of Kenya is full of soft targets. And yet nobody wants to live in fear and a lock-down mode.
The recent terrorist attack has unified Kenya. The 67 people killed came from many nations and included President Kenyatta’s nephew, two Canadian diplomats, and the renowned poet from Ghana, Kofi Awoonor – aged 78. Even during the siege hundreds of Kenyans showed up to pray, give blood, and donate thousands of shillings to pay for funerals. This past week there was a large inter-faith prayer rally led by religious leaders who were Hindu, Muslim, and Christians. A cleric who spoke confirmed this unity by stating, “We are one people and one nation”.
Student Investment Group closed their portfolio with over $300,000 this summer, reaching past their initial goal for the semester.
Courtesy of universityfinancelab.com
The group was established back in January of 2001 from a student’s idea. With the help from Richard Halberg, Professor of Business Administration and certified financial planner, it was passed onto the board of trustees which lead to the ultimate approval of the Student Investment Group (SIG). They were given the opportunity to manage a small portion ($25,000) of the Houghton College endowment, allowing them to participate in real investments. SIG is “treated as one of the other college money managers”, says Professor Halberg. “So how the money is used is ultimately decided by the board of trustees and the college administration.”
Each semester SIG decides on a new dollar amount based on the previous semester, this new amount then becomes their goal. Last semester the group went passed their goal. The group started out with $256,819 as of January 1, 2013 and was able to pass the $300,000 goal. John Carpenter, a member of the Student Investment Group since 2012, said, “It’s an amazing achievement. Whenever we reach one goal, we always set a newer, higher one. It’s really cool to be able to set a benchmark and reach it as a group.”
Veronica Gerace, a business major, expressed her opinion on this achievement, and said, “When I visited Houghton and learned about some of the programs in the business department, one of the things that impressed me the most was the student investment group. They’re a part of what makes our department so great, and I’ll be happy to watch and see what they can do with the group in the future.”
As Halberg said, this opportunity can be very beneficial to the students as they learn to invest with real money and deal with all the pressures it comes with that enterprise. In addition, the opportunity adds an interesting addition to their resume. Only a small percentage of business and accounting students get to have this experience while being an undergraduate. This opportunity “sets the students apart,” said Professor Halberg.
John Carpenter said, “not only are we learning different techniques and developing our own investing philosophies, we are learning how to interact productively in a group setting.” The group has to build off one another, overcome problems along the way, and in the end come together to make a final investment decision as a whole.
The group decides which companies to invest in by following “a set of guidelines determined by Professor Halberg and members of the board.” These guidelines describe the “types of companies that we are not allowed to invest to stay in line with the Houghton’s standards and community covenant. Other than that, we have free reign over who we can invest in,” says Carpenter.
SIG invests in a variety of companies, from well-known names like Johnson and Johnson, Kraft Foods, and Microsoft. The decisions are all based on ideas, research, and stock screening the students have done. Each member comes into the group with their own different strategies and so when it comes down to researching investment opportunities, “there is no telling who might bring what company to the table to invest in” said Carpenter. “That is part of the fun of the whole process. We are able to use the things we have learned in other classes and apply them to our research.”
Houghton College‘s third annual Faith and Justice Symposium addressed the issue of “Global Poverty and Hunger,” on local, national, and global levels.
Dr. Ndunge Kiiti, Houghton Professor of intercultural studies and also director of the Center for Faith, Justice and Global Engagement said, “We can end hunger in our time. We have the knowledge, technology, and resources, but do we have the will and commitment to fighting the injustices that perpetuate these challenges? The Symposium is designed to help us unveil the connections and seek solutions—linking faith and justice to respond to poverty and hunger at all levels—local, national and global.”
Houghton’s Center for Faith, Justice and Global Engagement partnered with Bread for the World, with a shared goal to challenge individuals to be aware of and engage in global issues. This year’s theme, “Global Poverty and Hunger: Unveiling the Connections, Seeking Solutions” featured seventeen speakers from across the country. According to Kiiti, the Center for Faith, Justice and Global Engagement aimed to have an interdisciplinary approach by providing diverse speakers and numerous activities.
Each year the Center for Faith, Justice and Global Engagement chooses a theme based off of reviews from the previous year’s symposium. One of the main points from the previous symposium was that many of those involved in human trafficking are involved as a result of living in poverty and are in need of a way to feed and take care of themselves and their family. After student surveys and discussions by those in the Center, the topic for this year’s symposium was decided. This year’s symposium will dissect the issues of poverty and hunger; not only global but also issues lying in Allegany County.
Amanda Wojcinski was one of five students who attended the National Gathering, a Bread For the World event this summer to help prepare for this years symposium. Wojcinski explained, “The biggest thing [about hunger] is that it’s both an issue in America and abroad.” In planning the symposium a main goal was to “[connect] students locally ” as well as “reaching out to the global community.”
Some of this year’s speakers included Eugene Cho, renowned activist and co-founder of One Day’s Wages. Aside from that, Cho is also the founder of Quest Church and the Q Café. He was a recent honor of 50 Everyday American Heroes for his work.
Other notable speakers included representatives from several branches of Bread for the World; a panel from Allegany County local farmers, cooperatives, and the Salvation Army; well-known universities such as Harvard, Auburn, and Eastern University; and activist organizations such as UNICEF, Worker Justice Center, and Catholic Relief Services.
The Symposium’s activities will address the issues of hunger in many ways and give opportunities for students and others to get involved in the discussion. There has been an ongoing a campus wide food drive and there will be an art auction where all donations go towards local hunger and poverty issues; also open to students will be various panel discussions, a coffee house, and a hunger dinner.
The symposium will conclude next Thursday, October 3 with a response discussion by Dr. Ron Oakerson, Houghton College professor of political science, regarding the Mango Outgrowers Project in Sierra Leone.
With recent low enrollment numbers in Houghton’s three first year honors programs – East Meets West, Science Honors, and Contemporary Contexts – the college has decided to cut Contemporary Contexts for next year to focus on recruitment and effectiveness on the two remaining programs.
Science Honors focuses on researching and analyzing scientific data, while students build a model on what they are researching. The other two programs, Contemporary Contexts and East Meets West are integrative; they combine courses on philosophy, art, literature, political science, or history, and involve experiential learning overseas during Mayterm.
Originally, Houghton College started its first honors program in the mid-1990’s. This was the First Year Honors Program (FYHP), which was a semester abroad in London. The program became very popular amongst prospective students. Professor Ben Lipscomb, director of honors, said, “We found that we were interviewing and turning away people.” So as demand and interest grew for the honors program, East Meets West was created, said Eric Currie, vice president for enrollment management. This not only allowed options for the incoming freshmen, but also allowed the college to enroll more students into the honors programs.
Another program, Science Honors, was then added a few years later “to recruit students for a particular set of majors,” said Lipscomb. So in response to the higher rate of college enrollment, the number of honors programs increased from one to three programs.
Honors programs themselves “exist for two overriding purposes,” said Lipscomb. “One is to recruit ambitious, high-performing students to the college,” and the other is “to produce great sophomores.”
Previous students who were accepted into honors echo Lipcombs’ remark. “I would not have come to Houghton if I hadn’t gotten accepted into the honors program,” said Collin Belt, a junior who was in Contemporary Contexts. Essie Fenstermacher, a previous student of East Meets West of last year, said, “Applying for the honors program made me focus more on Houghton. Having to put in that extra effort made it more of an investment.”
Lipscomb commented that in recent years, however, “recruitment numbers have been lower and that reflects itself in the honors selections process.” With student enrollment in the college decreasing and with honors programs being expensive to run, “let’s fill two programs more adequately instead of having three programs slightly under-enrolled.”
Dean of the College, Linda Mills-Woolsey, added, “If we can get the two programs fully enrolled or almost fully enrolled, we can have the same number of honor students as this year.” This year’s total enrollment of 48 students in the honors programs is significantly lower than the projected 73 students.
In hopes to increase the recruiting process for the honors programs, Contemporary Contexts, which evolved out of the FYHP, will be cut for next year. When talking about choosing which program to cut, Mills-Woolsey emphasized that “the things that has handicapped Contemporary Contexts is having it change every year. That has made it harder to market.” Dr. Lipscomb added, “What Contemporary Contexts struggled to do was to be a recruiting tool for the college.” And because of “its western travel destinations, it was consistently more expensive to run.”
Lipscomb continued to add that Science Honors has “bumped up the number of physics majors over the last four or five years, and we are interested in seeing how it will do with less competition.”
Mills-Woolsey stated that “whatever the future holds for honors, it needs to hold that sense of stretching and that sense of adventure.”
Allegany County schools are currently grappling with new curricula and state-mandated Common Core standards, a new set of national educational guidelines that are intended to bring diverse curricula across the United States into a common standard. Some, however, are questioning if schoolchildren are “getting lost along the way.”
“There’s no time in the day now for share or play time,” says Wendy Butler, Pre-K-4 principal at Fillmore Central School. “Extra support time just doesn’t exist. We used to have a half hour of recess a day; now if kids get 15 minutes they’re lucky.”
Courtesy of www.teachthought.com
The Common Core presents rigorous expectations for student learning in grade-level content areas. Teaching materials and literature for parents show a narrower, more specific curriculum that will educate students in fewer topics but with the benefit of a more complete knowledge knowledge of approved subject material. John King, New York state’s commissioner of education, shared his vision of the Common Core “raising standards to reflect college and career readiness in the 21st century.” Teaching must now reflect these standards and prepare students for Common Core-based testing.
Principal Butler described the struggle in implementing these standards, “You need to remember if you’re a 4th grade teacher, those kids haven’t had the Common Core instruction in grades 3, 2, 1 and kindergarten. There’s a lot of pre-requisite knowledge the kids just don’t have.”
Considering this lack of knowledge, Bethany Hackett, a Houghton student-teacher in Belfast Central School, described the pressure and stress this Common Core change is inflicting on teachers. She felt “teachers were knocked down” and “joy was sucked out.” She said the problem was not the standards themselves, but the way they were being implemented.
Mike Roche, principal at Belfast Central School, believed schools just need time, and the current stress and schedule changes are purely “growing pains.” He said, “Right or wrong, I think it’s the only way to adopt the Common Core curriculum. If you have a band-aid on, you can either do it slowly and painfully or you can do it quickly and get it over with.” He later reflected, “I worry about the children. Adults will all survive, but I worry about the children who will get lost along the way.”
Professor Freytag, associate dean for education and physical education, said, “Any time you implement systemic change, there’s going to be a gap.” She affirmed that the intent of the Common Core is excellent and that educators are still navigating its implications. She said, “A lot of administrators are facing challenging decisions, and it’s going to call for a lot of hard work, determination, creativity, and good sound pedagogical delivery.”
This issue is not only the concern of educators; it impacts each student and staff member at Houghton. Kristen Schnitzer, senior Inclusive Childhood Education major, believes that Houghton students, as possible future parents, should be aware of the changes in education since they are impacting “how students are going to grow up and learn.” Professor Sullivan, chair of the education department, emphasized that “schools are a major part of our communities” and parents and community members need to realize their power in “speaking into school districts and supporting their teachers.”
In midst of the change, pressure, discouragement, and hope, Bethany Hackett shared that she and other teachers hold onto the moments “when a child’s light bulb goes off” and when children yell for her to “keep reading” a Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale. She said, “You just remind yourself that you’re passionate about kids and you’re there for them.”
“The message people need to hear right now,” said Principal Butler, “is that our teachers are working very hard.” She shared that although teachers often feel “beat up” and people hear the problems of public education, teachers are “seeking the best for kids.”
Numerous alumni have contributed to funding the renovations for the house, which Mullen estimated to cost between $550,000 and $600,000. Daniel Noyes, executive director of alumni relations, said that “the project was 100% funded by gifts from alumni, particularly alumni from families who have a strong connection with the college.” The names of rooms in the house honor nine of those families: the Luckey, Essepian-Tysinger, Stevenson, Ries, Larder, White, Mills, Alderman, and Mullen families.
