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Febuary 10, 2014

EDITORIAL

Measuring success next challenge for community colleges

to avoid Duck Dynasty, first: Congratulations. Second: The show centers on the Robertson family which runs a duck-call fabrication business in Louisiana. The shows (unfortunately high) ratings dropped last year after the familys patriarch, Willies dad, made anti-gay comments. He was suspended NATALIE WRIGHT Opportunity is what America is all about or its supposed to be. from the show for a short time, but was That was the over-arching message in President Obamas recent State of If you tuned into the State of reinstated when members of the antithe Union address. And as a nation, there is much we need to do to improve the Union address on Jan. 28, you gay community rushed to defend him. opportunity for all. Robertson was at the address as were probably as shocked as I was Job creation has been the key phrase in every political speech of the last a guest of Louisiana Republican Rep. to see who made an appearance. October 21, 2013 The student publication of Washtenaw Community College sixVolume years. If politicians can convince America that they know how to create Vance McAllister, whose 2013 special President Obama may have been 20, Issue 6 Ann Arbor, Michigan jobs, theyre in. the headliner, but he was not the election victory is widely seen as a reBut in his address to Congress, Obama acknowledged a facet of opportunity nights biggest star, according to sult of his support. that seems to escape many: Job creation means nothing if no one is properly I am proud to have my close friend, the media response and the twittrained for those jobs. Workforce development and education are inherently constituent and small business ownter feeds of congressmen. tied to opportunity, every bit as much as job creation. It wasnt Vice President Joe er, Willie Robertson, attend tonights So, the White House has big plans for improvement in these areas, Obama Biden, Speaker of the House John State of the Union Address as my spesaid. His proposal for across-the-board reform of Americas training proBoehner, the rst lady, or even the cial guest, McAllister said in a stategrams, led by Vice President Biden, included expanding apprenticeships recovering wounded warrior Army ment. I look forward to the two of us and doing more as a country to take advantage of community colleges. Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsberg, who representing the Fifth District in DC This includes developing a new ranking system for community colleges this evening and bringing some diverstole the show. as well as building stronger connections between them and employers. The No, it was Willie Robertson, star sity to our nations capitol. ranking system will evaluate a colleges performance and tie that performance Rep. McAllister, this is not what of A&Es reality hit Duck Dynasty to the amount of federal aid available to students. who had congressmen lining the people mean when say they want more The American Association of Community Colleges has declared its opposiaisle to get their picture taken with diversity in Washington tion to this ranking system, stating that community colleges do not support Forget the fact that Robertson him. Every media outlet was talka ratings scheme, and that students choose a community college based on ing about him from NBC to the has no place representing people its proximity, not its value as a school. This is not true at least not in Michigan. A student who lives in Ann Arbor has a multitude of choices in schools that are within easy driving distance. And Washtenaw is full of students who live much closer to Schoolcraft College, Monroe County Community College, Jackson Community College, Wayne County Community College, Henry Ford Community College and Oakland Community College, but choose to come here because of the schools reputain gas-station sunglasses standing on a tion and the availability and standard of their program of choice. beach, wrapped in the American flag. Just as with universities, community colleges all have their successes and This was the last in a series of three failures in certain areas of study, and should be ranked as such. different commercials that the automaker As for whether or not community colleges support a ratings scheme, they aired during the Super Bowl. The Dylan absolutely can the system just has to be tailored to an accepted denition ad was an ode to made in America. of success. You cant fake true cool, Dylan says, Unlike the AACC, Washtenaw seems to be excited about this ranking as images of James Dean flash the screen. system, and it is very interested in helping to shape the denition of success. Fiat-Chrysler also aired commercials Not only graduation rates should be taken into account, but also transfer and JON PRICE for its Maserati and Jeep lines, but saved employment rates, because for many community college students, a job is the best for last, with Dylan urging consuccess, not necessarily a degree. One of the most compelling sumers to buy American. WCC President Rose Bellanca and Director of Government and Media commercials aired during the Super Let Germany make your beer, he Relations Jason Morgan are doing what they can to be a part of the conversaBowl this year was the Fiat-Chrysler said. Let Switzerland make your watchtion in Washington, and shape a fair denition of student success. Automobiles advertisement, featuring es. We will build your car. Rather than dismissing this change as meaningless, like the AACC, they iconic rock legend Bob Dylan. The Italian automaker, which took are working to make it as meaningful as possible. Is there anything more American over Chrysler last month, seemed to take Kudos to them. than America? Dylan asks the view- an unwarranted shot at Michigans craft er. Across the screen flash images beer industry, and the newly popular of men riding horses, cheerleaders Shinola watches that are being manufaccheering, an attractive young woman tured in Detroit and sold in high-dollar A NATIONAL PACEMAKER AWARD NEWSPAPER

A1 Voices On winning Ghost hunting? the battleof the Union is shameful The State Its as easy as with breast Associated Press. who didnt elect him. Forget that he ABC cancer For those who have managed is in the business of making duck calls,
The Washtenaw Voice

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which has absolutely no relevance to running a country. Forget that hes not even the one who made the antigay remarks that Republicans stand behind so steadfastly. Hes a celebrity, and that makes his presence news. It would be easy to rail against washtenawvoice.com McAllister for bringing Robertson into the center of our governments affairs, a place where he has absolutely no business. It would be easy to criticize the media for even showing him on camera, let alone having conversations about how appropriate his star-spangled bandanna was. It would be hard to admit that we are the ones to blame for this. But we are. As long as our society deems this acceptable, as long as we click-through on the headlines about Justin Biebers arrest before those about actual news, we have no one to blame but ourselves. How can anyone be upset about an ineffectual congress when we elect congressmen who not only invite people like Robertson to sit among them, but line up to meet him like starstruck teenagers? This is the state of our union

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Super Bowl car ad sparks super debate

coastal boutiques. Shinola quickly responded on Twitter: We propose a different approach: let #Detroit brew your beer, build your car, and your watch, followed by a link to a YouTube video that shows the process of a Shinola watch being made. Shinola was created in 2011, and employs approximately 200 people, most of whom live and work in Detroit. Founded by Fossil CEO Tom Kartsotis, Shinola has opened stores in New York and Detroits midtown area. The response the manufacturer gave to the Chrysler commercial was priceless. It was mature and well-thoughtout, showing the Italian automaker that there is plenty of room in Detroit for both of them. And Ill raise a Detroit-brewed beer to that.

Your thoughts? We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, but this one speaks volumes. While it hardly needs a caption, this photo shot by WCC student Adam Lowis when he was in the nations
capital during the U.S. government shutdown begs for a description. Share your creative captions with us and well print some of the better ones in our next issue. And the staff of The Voice will choose the winner, Volume 20, Issue13 who will receive a Washtenaw Voice T-shirt. Send your zingers to contest@washtenawvoice.com, by 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28.

VOICE
The student publication of Washtenaw Community College

Letters to the Editor

to oversee faculty performance. Thats the accountability chain-of-command. That said, there may be a larger issue here. Higher education in the U.S. managed to function reasonably well for hundreds of years without student evaluations of faculty. The movement toward such evaluations began in the late 1960s, gained momentum in the 1970s, and has been with us ever since. This period coincides, perhaps not coincidently, with the grade ination phenomenon that anyone in academe is well aware of. In the era of student evaluations upon which promotion and employment decisions may hinge, faculty and students have entered into a Grand Bargain: We, the faculty, will keep you entertained, not ask you to do anything terribly demanding, and inate grades. In return, youll give us good evaluations. Wink, wink. There are consequences to all of this. A recent The Wall Street Journal piece (How the College Bubble Will Pop, Jan. 9, 2014) by Richard Vetter,
KELLY BRACHA THE WASHTENAW VOICE

ADAM LOWIS THE WASHTENAW VOICE

Judge puts hope on hold for same-sex partners Colleges

4800 E. Huron River Dr. TI 106 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 (734) 677-5125
By KELLY BRACHA legitimate state interest in banning thewashtenawvoice@gmail.com Staff Writer gay marriage. I feel theof judge is giving The Washtenaw Voice is produced fortnightly by that students Washtenaw Gay couples gathered at expressed the a very fair said Rev. Gail Community College and the views herein will review, not imply endorsement Washtenaw Clerks office last or Geisenhainer. Were going to be back or approvalCounty by the faculty, administration Board of Trustees of WCC. week hoping for a marriage license inhere on Feb. 25. No one is going away Student publications are important establishing and maintaining an but were left at civic altar holding discussion from the issue. The hope is right here atmosphere ofthe free and responsible and in bringing matters of a number and importance a date. room. community. Editorial concern and to the attention in of this the campus Nickol McKenzie, and her partGeisenhainer andfor members responsibility for The 27, Voice lies with the students, who will strive balance, of ner Aliciaand Wilk, 25, ofin Ypsilanti, wereof issues the First Unitarian Universalist fairness integrity their coverage and events while employing the among the 62 couples yearning the and Congregation of Ann Arbor were best habits and practices of freefor inquiry expression. opportunity to getVoice a marriage license by dozens of supporters The Washtenaw does not representjoined or endorse the accuracy or reliabilityhopand exchange vows. ing to see a change. of immediately any of the information or content in advertisements contained in the We have a its wedding set for May April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, newspaper or website, www.washtenawvoice.com, nor the quality of any 17,products, but it was going toor be without a who are suing the state information other materials displayed or obtained as a seeking result of the license, McKenzie said. We have right to marry adopt each an advertisement or any other information or offer in or inand connection with others the everything for a advertised. typical wedding, children, led the lawsuit at issue. services orset products but The when we heard there might give up because Voice welcomes letters to be thea editor We from cant its readers andhope will make chance get a license, came here hope is what we have keeps us every to effort to publishwe them. We reserve the right to edit lettersand for space together. strong, Washtenaw County Board considerations, and ask that writers limit their comments to no more than 400 But they will have wait for a deYousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, words. All letters mustto include a name and Chairman contact information, such as an email cision following Feb. 25 U.S. can said a speech after news of the delay address or phonea number, sotrial. the letters be in veried before they are printed. District Judge Friedman de-all broke to the crowd. Every citizen of The Voice is Bernard committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper layed a decision world an equal right to marry andmaking on its website, juston as Wednesday, it is committed the to the kind has of careful journalism that saying he prefers to hear person love be with will minimize the number oftestimony errors printed.the To report an they error of factand thatto should from experts phone on whether theres that person for the rest of their life. be corrected, 734-677-5405 ora email thewashtenawvoice@gmail.com.
A copy of each edition of The Washtenaw Voice is free to everyone. Additional copies are available at The Voice newsroom, TI 106, for 25 cents each.
EDITOR Maria Rigou drigou@wccnet.edu ADVERTISING MANAGER Becky Alliston ealliston@wccnet.edu

SOQs are not the students right

Its not very often that I quote Ayn Rand, but in thinking about The Washtenaw Voices request for faculty SOQs, one Rand quote comes to mind: Question your premises. In this case, the premise in question is found in the very headline of the Jan. 27 issue: The customers right? If one accepts that students are customers, then perhaps there is an argument for releasing SOQ information (though there are still very good reasons not to). However, students are not the customers, despite our cultural pretense to the contrary. Washtenaw Community College was created by and is funded primarily by the taxpayers of Washtenaw County and the State of Michigan. The taxpayers are, in effect, THE customers. The staff and faculty of WCC are the producers. Students are the product. The taxpayer-voters elect a board of trustees who then hire an administration

director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University, and Christopher Denhart, a student at OU, suggests that the SOQ chickens are coming home to roost. College degrees, while still of value, are being devalued in a number of ways and by a number of factors. They write that, Declining academic standards and grade ination add to employers perceptions that college degrees say Director of Government and little about job readiness. Further, Media Relations Jason value Morgan A college degrees declining is ismore probably the youngest adminiseven pronounced for younger trator on campus. He talksif about Americans. Just as with money, you the the changes that are happening debase currency, it will buy less.in Lansing WCC and Washington D.C. and Whether SOQs ever become how at public orthese not, might in the affect battlestudents for more Washtenaw Community College, student rights the war is already over. in anwon. interview with Voice Editor Students Evidence suggests, howMaria Rigou. ever, that it may be a Pyrrhic victory.

youngest director talks politics

Chair, Department of Social Science

R. Wm. La Hote

Same-sex couples with numbers in hand and papers lled out wait outside the Washtenaw County Clerks Ofce last Wednesday.

Wheres the risk assessment with bad weather?

who drives from Detroit and then another student in my Social Problems class who drives from Whitmore Lake. While scraping off the wet, packed, icy snow on my car, I thought, How many class. others need to make such a long drive Neil Gudsen, the computer inforto WCC? mation program manager, On thesystems way to school, on Michigan served as a guiding mentor along the Radio, they were talking about the path from the beginning. weather. In-between the many acciI told him, really pour dent reports, they said, If youyourself did not intoto this boy didplease he! He have be thing. on the And roads, then really did, said Gudsen. dont be. Azizphrase continued himself That stuckto in teach my mind. Do expanding his knowlI programming, have to be on the road? What level edge include C# programming lanof riskto am I taking? guage overwith the following summer. I spoke our President, Dr. Rose Bellanca, who was nice, and reAZZAM minded her of the danger everyone CONTINUED A6 had faced during those morning hours. She acknowledged that while driving in that morning she was thinking that she should have closed WCC, and she apologized for not doing that. Washtenaw Voice: You seem I remembered the Army. All of us wear many hats, according to who to led troops had to write a report the job titles beneath your name: about assessing operational risk. We Director of Government evaluated the jeopardy that couldand be Mediawith Relations Department, associated performing a certain Foundation. Tell us about the action. work you do for theinvolved college?in We weighed the threat Morgan: I doon wear many doing aJason task, then planned how to hats here. Partially because the accomplish it while reducing the numwork with our and fedber of hazards thatlocal may state result from eral elected officials impacts every performing the said action. facet of the college. Legislation imAs a leader, my soldiers lives were pacts our students when comes in my hands. They counted onit me not to student aid, our veterans when to have them take unnecessary risks. I itthat comes to veteran programming, owed much to them. Washtenaw the colleges bottom Community College owesline thatwhen muchit comes to our budget from the state, to us. when it comes from federal funding through grants. Hubbard LaShawn
Ypsilanti
MORGAN Q&A CONTINUED A5

C++ student nds himself in Grade A career

By DAVID FITCH MANAGING EDITOR
David nkwright@wccnet.edu in Fitch 2004, when Garant If self-motivation has a face, name Eric he began experiPHOTO EDITOR Jon Price Conradi and a voice, it just might Bob belong to menting with the kbracha@wccnet.edu Washtenaw Community College stu- CORRESPONDENTS familys rst PC. Erik Morris DESIGNERS EJ Stout dent Azzam Aziz. I just startBrian Auten The polite and driven 21-year-old ed messing with Adrianna Velazquez bauten@wccnet.edu programming student from Saline is at (the computer), George ODonovan ADVISER Gave a point in his career that many would Keith said Aziz. I had godonovan@wccnet.edu kgave@wccnet.edu envy, due in no smallONLINE part to his exthis curiosity for EDITOR traordinary motivation and passion things for some Azzam Aziz Christina Fleming ceming@wccnet.edu for his eld. reason. EDITOR In 2007, Aziz moved VIDEO with his father, And computer technology helped James Saoud mother, and two sisters from Jordan to break down a barrier. jsaoud@wccnet.edu

Staff Wright Writer M. with computers M. Donaldson Natalie

to the United States. STAFF WRITERS

Aziz got his start

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On the first Wednesday in February, we had a heavy snowfall, producing little to no visibility walking or driving. IIlearned bywindow playing video looked English out of my and games, said Aziz. I learned could not see much out ofgrammar it at all. perfectly, but I still have an accent. I stepped out of my house just to WCC instructor Khaled make sure that I was not Mansour, imaginone Azizs future mentors, taught ing of that terrible weather. I turned Azizs first programming my head, and then regrettedclass, it. Thea course C++ language. This, accordsmall, in sharp specks of ice were striking Aziz, is face. where his vocational ingto me on my story I really wentbegins. inside thinking I didnt get enough of the class Washtenaw Community College The two hours werent enoughfor for me, would cancel the classes tohe said. more, so I knew I day, or I at wanted least delay the morning liked thisIstuff, and when I came to classes. checked the website: noit I announcement. was into computers, I didnt know where exactly but began I started that My thoughts to with wonder, really? They want me and every other student to drive through this? I remembered one of my classmates