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Negativity by board not welcome

By Mark Edgcomb
Hammer Point Column, May 5, 2005

Hammer Point 1
    Time, all students waste time, I waste time. You know the truth is I do not waste my time. In fact, there is not enough time in the day. With classes coming to an end, all my professors are wanting, no demanding, or maybe hoping that I digest hundreds of pages of text they assigned much earlier in the year. Certainly, these professors will understand and might forgive me if I forsake completing this unpleasant task. 
Hammer Point 2 
    Of late, I have not taken the time to read our local News-Tribune, yet I saw that IVCC had made the front page; therefore, I took the time needed and read the article. It seems that the newly elected board members have a destructive attitude. Yes, money for education is in short supply these days, but money alone does not make for a great education. 
    You newly elected members of the IVCC board, please listen well. It is the fine professors and hard working support personal that have made my time at IVCC interesting, challenging, enjoyable, educational, and most important for me fun. Instead of bringing negativity with you at the next board meeting find that happy place and try not to lambast one of my fellow students who only sits on the board in an advisory position. 
    Moreover, remember talk is cheap, newly elected board members; besides, without students you have no school. Therefore, you had your 15 minutes of fame. Now we shall permit time to determine your worth as an IVCC trustee. 
    My point is that if you listen to what is being spoken in the halls and classrooms on campus, the overall atmosphere is positive. Like water flowing down a drain, the optimistic, upbeat attitude that one finds in the students, staff, janitors, safety service, mail room, teachers, professors, and any other personnel that I have forgotten (sorry) comes form the top down. The current administration’s stratagem is working. I hope that the newly elected members of the IVCC Board will not clog the flow of the beneficial ideas and positive mind-set that emanates down the stairwell from the offices of this school’s administration and into the halls and classrooms with their negativity.
Hammer Point 3
    Talking about time, how many hours, days, even months do you think some of the food items have been spinning around in the vending machine down in the cafeteria. I believe some of those items could be classified as fossils. However, who am I to judge I eat at McDonalds.
Hammer Point 4
    A long time ago, a time before many of the students that attend classes here on campus or the keyboarded (type two finger poke for me) answers over the web in online classes, I never thought I’d someday be a college student. However, things do occur that change one’s life dramatically. 
    I returned to school part-time in the 2003 and hope to exit in the spring of 2006. I took my placement test in the summer of 2004, which placed me into English Composition I. Incidentally, I had still not visited with any counselor here on campus and would not recommend this strategy (take Strategies for College) to any student. 
    Nevertheless, I found myself in English class and no idea where to place a comma, and still forget when and where. This English professor preformed a miracle and along with many long hours typing no keyboarding and using the writing center, I passed. This professor suggested that I might write something for the IV Leader. Thank you for the push, Professor.
    Wishing all the students and staff at IVCC a fun-filled summer, and I have to get my over-stuffed, pull behind book bag wheels greased and ready for one more year.