These times, they are a changin’
By Mark "The Hammer" Edgcomb
IV Leader Staff
Change is frightening for most students. Each semester,
students change professors and experience education from a different
perspective. I study for hours (honestly, no less than 5 minutes), then
nervously take my first test with my newest professor.
It never fails that after studying hard for the full 1/12 of
an hour, the innovative professor requests that I answer a question for which I
have not prepared a response to defend or support my answer and prove that I
have mastered the subject material for which they have their master degree or
higher.
However, once I take that first test, my fear level subsides.
I recognize change is necessary. Therefore, I have
necessitated changes in my thought process, which has been the most apprehensive
time in my experience here at IVCC. I’ve changed from a hardcore redneck who
once thought degrees attached to your name had something to do with what
temperature you cooked “spam” and not what college you cooked it at.
Without a doubt, no one can receive an education without
questioning, challenging or changing oneself. This increase of awareness of the
world around us will bring change. Change is good.
HAMMER POINT 2
At IVCC, the Master Plan will bring grandiose changes.
Certainly, decreasing the distance a student walks from the parking lots will be
the most appreciated part of this still-to-be-fully-funded plan. Please
remember, it is simply a long-term plan and plans can change.
Keep this fact in mind: IVCC lies inside the borders of an
almost bankrupt state, which is found inside the United States. America’s
federal grant money, once used for education at IVCC, is disappearing. Those
people we voted into office are shipping it across the ocean, attempting to
convince the diverse people of Iraq that the American plan of democracy is what
the doctor ordered.
Our President, who studied history at Yale, has forgotten all
his learning. You cannot force a sovereign group of people to believe in your
ideal of government. Does anyone remember what happened in 1776? Change has to
come from within, started by the people.
Our elected Board of Trustees approved a $2 tuition increase,
raising the tuition and universal fee rate to $63.25 per credit hour.
Our elected Congress in Washington, D.C., has us paying over $100,000 a second
(55 plus billion a year and increasing) for the war. This does not include the
loss of human life — 2,307 soldiers as of March 13, 2006, based on Pentagon
figures — which no one can put a price on.
HAMMER POINT 3
Have you walked through the counseling center lately: it
seems to have become a little “squishy.” No, the counselors are not being soft
or unsteady in their guidance they deliver to students.
I mean the walls are not fixed. The school is installing
temporary walls to fill the once large space enjoyed as we students passed
through this area that helps guide students toward their future change.
HAMMER POINT 2 ½
Talking about the future, I can read the sign as I coast past
the unhurried streaming message. All I saw were the extra large red LIVE MARC …
and all I thought was that fellow Americans stationed overseas face death and
injury protecting our freedom. Maybe this is part of President Bush’s Master
Plan, although he still has not explained completely what that plan is or what
it covers.
HAMMER POINT 4
Has there been a major change in the frequency of male hand
washing on campus? All the paper towel dispensers always seem empty of paper.
Using the knowledge I have acquired here at IVCC, I proposed this theory. I
think it has more to do with the changing of the older-functioning,
larger-capacity dispensers with the new-fangled, always-empty dispensers.
Certainly, I hope those in charge do not plan on changing any
other paper holders in the washroom. That is one change we can do without.
I have to go to work on heating up some spam.