Pennon March 2015

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March 2015

• A Monthly Publication For The Students of North Shore Community College, Danvers, Middleton, Lynn, & Beverly, Massachusetts • •Read The Pennon Online At: northshore.edu/pennon•

Salvador Dali

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Environmental Committee

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Community Conversations

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Driverless Cars

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The President’s Column: Keep up the good work! By Patricia Gentile NSCC President

Wow…what a winter! The amount of snow we’ve had in such a short amount of time has taken quite a toll on our lives, our shoveling backs, our homes, our campuses, you, our students, our spring semester, our snow removal budget, and our good natures. I know it has been frustrating for us all and I commend you for being flexible and continuing to proceed with your studies in and out of the classroom. What all our cancellations have highlighted for us is the need to better utilize alternative strategies for our classroom-based courses and programs. Dr. Karen Hynick, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean Michael Badolato are communicating with all faculty to suggest strategies to help keep their courses and students moving along, despite the snow closures. As long as the internet and electricity are up and running, our virtual classroom materials, communication options, and online instruction can fill in the gap. For now, stay the course, do your best, and use

President Patricia Gentile that New England-infused hardiness to keep moving forward. Remember – spring is but a mere three weeks away! The weather has made transportation to and from the college extremely challenging, which further highlights the need to obtain public transportation to our Danvers campus. Public transportation with alternative options is essential for student success, especially for

lower-income students who can’t afford a car. When current and potential students have access to affordable, reliable transit, they will be able to enroll in more courses, have more flexible choices for schedule and program, and study towards their degree to completion. I’d like to invite the student body, particularly student government, to join with me and MASSPIRG on our advocacy

strategy to secure this necessary resource for students who wish to study in Danvers but lack the means to do so. We are approaching the issue from multiple directions, including meeting with the state Board of Higher Education to ask them to endorse a resolution passed by our Board of Trustees to rectify the fact that NSCC is the only community college in the state

environment are eloquently detailed on our college website. We are trying to do our best as stewards for the environment, but we can and should be doing more. Take the case of single-serve plastic water bottles. Many people are not aware of the impact they have on the environment. The fact is that they pose a very serious threat to the environment. They also pose a very serious threat to the high environmental stewardship standards North Shore Community College is trying to uphold. There is a movement afoot in our nation and across the globe. Fourteen national parks, along with many public

offices, cities, towns and schools across several different countries, including the US, have banned the sale of singleserve plastic water bottles. I propose we join the ranks of more than ninety other colleges and universities and ban the sale of single-serve bottled water on campus. We would be in good company. Some of the other schools that have a ban on the sale of bottled water are Harvard, Brandeis, Emerson, Brown, Dartmouth, Ithaca, St. Michael’s, University of Vermont, Hampshire College, and Green Mountain College. We would have the distinction of being the first community college in the state of Massachusetts to join the ban.

This move would be well aligned with our strong commitment to the environment. Most of us feel pretty good when we drop our empty Poland Spring bottle into the recycling bin. That’s certainly the best way to dispose of that bottle if you do choose to buy one, says a peer-reviewed study commissioned by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for the state of Oregon. The study was a Life Cycle Assessment. This type of study analyzes the effects over the entire life cycle of a subject, in this case, water. “The ‘life cycle’ includes extracting raw materials from the earth (coal, oil, minerals, etc.), producing energy resources and packaging

What’s in a Grant?

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without public transportation access to a main campus. I will also direct our incoming Vice President of Student Affairs to lead a cross-college transportation committee with student representation to look at the alternatives and make recommendations to me on those that could help our students with reliable transportation to/from campus. If you would like to get involved in this initiative, let me or Dean of Students Stephen Creamer know via email at pgentile@northshore.edu or screamer@northshore.edu. We will keep working hard to make more transportation options a reality for our students and to ensure a more sustainable future that reduces the number of cars traveling to and from our Danvers campus. By the way, If this winter has left you feeling a little behind the eight ball, why not consider taking some summer courses to catch up or stay on track? Summer 2015 registration begins March 4, 2015. Till next time, Pat

Editorial: Why NSCC should ban the sale of plastic water bottles By Kathleen Stone Contributing Writer

Those of us who are part of North Shore Community College, be we students, faculty or administrators, take great pride in our college’s serious commitment to environmental stewardship. We have the distinction of having the state’s very first Zero Net Energy Building, which is the second largest building of this type in the state. We have the distinction of being the 100th college in the nation to sign onto The American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. Our programs and philosophy regarding sustainability and concern for the

materials, water treatment, bottling, transportation, consumer transport, dishwasher use, and disposal, recycling and composting.” The study found that “purchasing and recycling a typical water bottle reduces energy consumption by 24 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent over the entire life cycle, compared against purchasing and disposing of the same water bottle.” However, DEQ wants to make one point very clear. “‘For consumers, the most important message is: reduce first, then recycle,’ says David Allaway, DEQ solid waste senior policy analyst.” To illustrate Continued on Page 8


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