February 2009 Articles
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Meet CODFA President Nancy Stanko by Karin Evans
Thinking Outside "the Box" by Mike Losacco
COD "Life Support": Join the Team! by Mary Newman
English Baby: Alexander Owen Matos, born 10-18-08 by Nicole Matos
Accolades Returns Next Month! by Konkel & Hagman
Meet CODFA President Nancy Stanko: Seeing the Big Picture, But Not From the Top Down by Karin Evans
Nancy Stanko has a special way of seeing the big picture: she's a pilot. She started flying
with her father as a child and never stopped. She says that being a flight navigator
gives her an additional view that she plans to use these next two years.
Nancy takes over as CODFA President in a time of enormous and unpredictable change. Though she's deeply aware of the challenges confronting her, she is sure she did the right thing by stepping up as President. She took a year after her term as Vice President and deliberately worked to prepare herself—she worked with the IEA, took some classes. Then she faltered. She felt she couldn't go back and face the frustrations. But when she told her family and friends she was done, she was suddenly devastated. She says, "Then I knew this was something I had to do, and I have had so much confidence ever since!" Nancy believes that the faculty association is in a stronger position as a result of Glenn Hansen's leadership, and that she is the right person to continue leading us in a positive direction.
Like many of our students, Nancy had difficulty finding her own footing in college. She enrolled at Elgin Community College and worked toward an applied degree instead of taking general education courses, thinking she was preparing to transfer for a four-year degree in business at NIU: "I did too much self-advising—it was really my own fault!" She did transfer, but her grades weren't good enough to get into the business college, and she had job offers—so she nearly quit school. Her father persuaded her to try a different college. She went to Eastern, graduated with a business education degree in one year, and completed her master's in education the year later.
Nancy's first teaching job was at Black Hawk College—known as the smallest extension community college in Illinois. Wanting a more urban setting, Nancy went to Robert Morris College, where she taught for four years. She says Robert Morris was a wonderful experience—including an episode in which an angry student threw a chair at her and threatened her life. Although the student was suspended, she returned to the school later. Nancy is proud that she and the student were able to work through the incident, and the student became one of Nancy's best students.
Now in her 21st year teaching Office Technology at COD, Nancy takes up her new leadership role just in time to adjust to life with President Breuder. She says that she will have to learn to work with someone who has been rumored to be very top-down in management approach. Just as the view from the sky is top down, you need the collaboration of the people and technology to land safely. The community college educational setting requires collaboration with all stakeholders including students, faculty, administrators, and the community. She will not operate as a top-down leader herself and takes pride with the Senate's "Rule of Two"—we will continue to work together.
Faculty First-Person: Thinking Outside "the Box" by Mike Losacco
I think that in an institution of higher learning, students should be exposed to different
perspectives and given opportunities to reflect deeply on
metaphysical questions in ways that develop their personal philosophy. As professors, I feel we not
only have an obligation to teach students the expertise of our particular disciplines, but also
about life itself.
In CIS 1110 Using Computers, as well as CIS 1150 Introduction to Computer Information Systems, both considered introductory courses which are required by most majors, I give a presentation entitled "The Dash." The initial idea came from The Magus, a novel by John Fowles, and I first used this in a classroom when I student-taught in 1982. The presentation has dramatically evolved over the years, having little resemblance to that first effort given to a group of 16 and 17-year-old philosophy students in a Chicago public high school. I resurrected it as an adjunct at COD and have been doing "The Dash" every term since 1998.
We start out by examining the merits of focusing life based on material achievements (Destinations) resulting in much of what we do in life being taken for granted, versus focusing on the process of living (Journeys). The students are then "taken" on a journey, during which they are the central character in a life-and-death ethical scenario that loosely revolves around computers (which, btw, I affectionately refer to as "the Box").
In this activity, my students are reminded that throughout life they will have to make many monumental choices. Those decisions shape the journeys of our lives and ultimately who we are; the journeys themselves become far more significant than the destinations at which we may arrive. Unfortunately, we often take those journeys and related decisions for granted and neither give them appropriate reflection nor fully consider their ramifications, resulting in feelings of regret and guilt which can linger and detrimentally affect us for many years of our lives.
Though the likelihood of a real life-and-death scenario like the one encountered in "The Dash" is minimal, recently several horrific events (Virginia Tech, NIU, etc.) have caused my students to draw uncomfortable parallels. I almost stopped giving the presentation after those events, but the students who had heard it in the past encouraged me to continue, stating that those events made it even more important to experience "The Dash."
After a few days for personal reflection, the students submit a report based on their reaction to the presentation, and I explain that by committing their thoughts and feelings to paper, they have a more lasting ownership of those emotions they experienced.
I think there are a few reasons why "The Dash"1 has had the impact that it has and been successful. First, students do not expect this in a computer class, so it catches their attention right from the outset. Next, it gives them cause to think about what is really important in their lives. Finally, because it is usually very powerful and highly emotional, the students get a glimpse of the real me, not the façade of some stoic professor, and their feedback indicates they appreciate that I share that with them.
While the majority of students use the report to convey how "The Dash" has affected them, there are several students in every class who approach me and offer their thanks, some of whom actually shake my hand. Over the years I have even had a few who, through their tears, have given me a warm, lengthy embrace. And they were male!
1You'd have to sit in on the presentation sometime to get the meaning of the title.
COD "Life Support": Join the Team! by Mary Newman
Building a sense of community at COD is one of Dr. Breuder's main priorities as our new president.
Personally, I think this is a wonderful goal! As Dr. Breuder
spoke to us during the opening day of the semester about this goal, I found myself wondering what I
could do to contribute positively to our COD environment. I really would like all of us to feel more
connected at work and supported by one another. Then it hit me!
I'd like to provide a support service for those experiencing either a difficult period of time in their life such as an illness, a loss, or any other such difficulty as well as for those experiencing great joy such as the birth of a child or the attainment of a new degree. We all need a little support every now and then.
I pitched my idea to my suite-mate, Bob Dixon-Kolar. He not only liked the idea, but he agreed to help me. This is how we envision the service would work. If you are experiencing something for which you could use a little support, whether it is a difficult time or a wonderful time, you could call or email me or Bob to let us know what we could do to help. In turn, we would send out an email to the faculty to let them know of your circumstance (if you wanted it known) and of your needs. This could be completely anonymous, if you so choose. Furthermore, you wouldn't even need to tell us the details. Share only what makes you feel comfortable.
What we could provide would be such items as cards, cooked meals (if needed), or other such items. All cards, food, or other items would be delivered to me or Bob at work, then we would get these items to you. This would work much like the services many churches provide to their members.
Let me know what you think. If you like this idea and are interested in helping out, please let us know. We'd like to have a group of people who are willing to help with this effort. We hope you'll consider it.
English Baby: Alexander Owen Matos, born 10-18-08 by Nicole Matos
Though I've been dutifully keeping my lists of all those baby-book firsts, I'm continually
reminded that the best memories fail to fit neatly into obvious
categories. I think I'll call this one "The First Time He Talked to Me." It was just a couple weeks
ago, and at 3 months old, Alex had been up most of the night with his first stomach flu. By the
morning I was desperate to take a shower (I'll allow everyone to connect the dots between the last two
sentences) and, lacking somewhere convenient to put him, I set him down, fully clothed, in the hammock
of his (dry) baby bathtub, and set the bathtub on the bathroom floor.
I'd barely drawn the shower curtain when he started to yipe (what we call it—a cry that sounds
almost exactly like "Hey!" and that's what it seems to mean). I leaned out, dripping and swooning, and
patted him, and ducked back in. Yipe! Yipe, yipe! Yipe, yipe, yipe! Not without an air of Cruella
DeVille, I turned off the water, threw back the curtain, and waited: Well? Alex looked at me
intently—really really intently—and threw his head back and then mimed—with a mime's
earnest exaggeration—the special splashing routine he only does in the bath. Then he paused (full
stop), and made a sad, sad bow of his mouth.
God help me, I started laughing—it was so obvious he was saying, "Hey! This bathtub is broken!"—at which point he recommenced yiping, then ran through the whole routine again. Only when I made my mouth into a sad, sad bow—"yes, Alex, the bathtub is broken, and perhaps one day, with time, we can all learn to accept that"—did he finally relax, confident that he'd at least given me the message. At his usual bathtime that evening, I was eager to see if he'd receive the tub's restoration with any other message, but he was just a regular baby again, mine and loved, but naked and inscrutable.
Editor's Note: Our other new English Baby is Jenna Snart. Jason offered us a photo and this brief word of wisdom: "How to stop a baby from crying? Earplugs."
Images are of Alex (above) and Jenna (below)
Accolades Returns Next Month! by Mary Konkel & Ida Hagman
In our March issue we'll run a new column dedicated to faculty achievements. Whose news should we
all know? Tell us about educational achievements and degrees, publications,
program development, awards, athletic achievements, musical/theatrical accomplishments and more. We want
to hear about your personal accomplishments as well as your professional ones. Consider highlighting
someone who has worked behind the scenes without recognition.
Submissions should be forwarded to column editors, Ida Hagman or Mary Konkel by Monday, February 16 for inclusion in the next Faculty Advocate's Accolades column.
