M T H E M O N TA G E
Meramec celebrates 50 years KELLY GLUECK MANAGING EDITOR
Fifty years ago, The Missouri Junior College District laid out plans to offer over one million students the opportunity to acquire affordable higher education. Coincidentally, “The Jetsons” aired its first futuristic episode on CBS that same year. Although students have yet to fly their cars to school or jetpack to the Phillips 66 on Big Bend, the Jetsons’ housemaid robot could be comparable to modern-day Siri; or perhaps she would qualify more of a Roomba. Either way, technology has helped fulfill the futuristic dreams of gadget lovers everywhere, just as the STLCC district has helped aid more than a million students achieve their academic goals. In the next seven issues, the Montage will flashback to events within the last half See inside for stories century to show the contrast between Meramec then and Meramec now.
Smoking ban more than line in the sand Board of Trustees to vote on smoking ban KURT OBERREITHER NEWS EDITOR Before spring 2009, students, faculty and staff could find smoking receptacles outside building entrances at STLCCMeramec. This semester, signs have been posted at doorways across the district: “No smoking. Violators will be subject to fines,” they read. On Jan. 26, the Board of Trustees will vote on the recommended approval of a revised board policy that will allow violators of the district-wide tobacco ban to be subject to a $15 fine and other disciplinary action. The use of tobacco products is prohibited anywhere on campus grounds, and campus police will issue citations to violators. This is the closest the campus has come to concretely enforcing the ban in the “Tobacco-free for you and me” saga. “It certainly will enhance our ability to get compliance,” Campus Police Chief Paul Banta said. “Because if there’s something to back up the fact that we don’t want people smoking on campus, that’s going to compel the people who don’t cooperate just because it’s the right thing to do.” According to Meramec President George Wasson, faculty and staff who are caught will be given a verbal warning on their first offense and given a written warning on their second. College policy dictates that employees of the college can face disciplinary action up to termination.
(MIAC). They reached a consensus and the Campus Leadership Team approved the tobacco-free initiative. The rule was enforced in the fall of 2009. However, the rule was not official college policy and therefore a fine could not be enforced. The ban and fine must be universal at all campuses – excluding Wildwood, which has maintained a green, smoke-free environment since its inception. The ban was lifted. “You can’t just tell people to do something without consequence,” said Addison Brown, vice president of Student Governance Council. “If the people don’t govern themselves, then they have to be governed.”
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Wasson said they will be fined every time. “I think it will be difficult to transition to the new rule,” Banta said. “Once people get used to it, I think we’ll be fine. It’s just going to be an adjustment period like anything else that changes; it always takes some time.” In the fall of 2008, former chair of the Wellness Committee Margaret Hvatum
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conducted a survey of faculty, staff and students to gauge opinion on smoking on campus. After an “overwhelming” amount of participants voted that smoking should at least be restricted, the results were presented to the Student Government Association (SGA), the Meramec Academic Governance Council (MAGC) and the Meramec Institutional Affairs Council
So in the following fall of 2010, the “ban” was lifted, but the tobacco ban was back the next semester after it became board policy. He said the main focus right now is informing students of the possibility of a fine and disciplinary action. Banta said he may increase the police force after the board decision. “I know that smokers find it difficult not to smoke whenever they want,” Hvatum said. “I hope they realize that by not smoking they might be saving lives – not just theirs but other people’s lives.” Meramec is hosting free smoking cessation sessions in February. A quit smoking
700 win landmark for SPENCER GLEASON SPORTS EDITOR As the buzzer sounded at the end of the St. Louis Community College Archers 87-77 victory over the Tohono O’odham Community College Jegos, on Jan. 4, in Yuma, Ariz., Archer head coach Randy Albrecht had just reached another milestone—win number 700— again. A year after winning his career 700th game, Albrecht had now won his 700th game at the helm of junior college basketball in St. Louis. Albrecht, who had coached for three seasons at St. Louis University in the mid 1970s and compiled a record of 32-47 while coaching the Billikens, is one of only nine active coaches to have hit the landmark and one of only seven to do it while coaching the same team. “There are too many celebrations of 700 to keep track of,” Albrecht said. “It’s very confusing for the average person. It’s like— ‘this guy, he can’t remember that he won 700 last year. He’s getting old @themontage
so they have to do it every year to remind him.’” Since taking the men’s head coaching position 35 years ago at STLCC-Meramec in 1977, and continue as the STLCC Archer men’s basketball coach at STLCCForest Park, Albrecht has coached over 400 student athletes within the span of five decades. “I’ve coached on this court in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s and now the 2010s,” Albrecht said. “That’s five different decades I’ve coached on this court, so it’s been a long time.” Being married to his wife Linda, for about 45 years, she has sat through over 1,000 junior college basketball games cheering on her husband’s team. “He does leave [high anxiety moments] out on the court,” Linda Albrecht said. “Mentally he may be thinking about it but he handles it very well.” In 1985, the National Junior
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College Athletic Association (NJCAA) instituted divisions and STLCC basketball was placed in Division II. Since then, Albrecht has led his teams to 27 consecutive winning seasons. “The thing that I’m most proud of is the consistency of the winning seasons,” Albrecht said. “We haven’t won a national championship, but we’ve gone to the tournament. We’re averaging 20 wins a year. That’s about a normal year—[finishing] 20-11. To do that for 27 straight years of that kind of average is a testament that we [as a staff] do have some kind of plan. We have an idea of what kind of kids we need and how to coach them when they come.” While never picturing himself still on the sidelines in the year 2012, Albrecht still has a love for the game. “Years ago I used to think—the year 2000 will be a huge celebration and that’s the year I ought to re-
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tire… I would have never believed I would still be coaching… It’s still been a lot of fun and it beats work.”
January 26, 2012
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