Spring Cleaning

On Thursday, March 22^nd the Clean Sphere club held a campus cleanup. We started the clean-up on the back-side of the Villas. The crew picked up about 12 garbage bags full behind there before moving on towards the ravine by building four.

The clean-up took only a couple of hours, with only 5
participants from the Clean Sphere. We hope that with our next clean-up we can double that number and take out the rest of the campus in just as little of time!

This effort around campus helped immensely, but we all could do our part a little better. Make sure the dumpster door is closed after you throw your trash in it (raccoons and wind will spread that trash all over the place, which was the situation behind the Villas). Check to make sure trash doesn’t fall out of your bag or car during the day. And participate in campus clean-ups whenever they’re available. It’s easy if we all take the steps needed to keep our campus beautiful for all those who walk through it now and in the future.

Cuts Continue at Black Hawk

Tanner Rowe

Matthew Hayes

At the beginning of the year, Black Hawk College officials made plans to cut 17 full-time employees due to a lack in state funding.

On February 23^rd, teachers spoke out to the Board of Trustees after the final arrangements were made in making cuts that will go into effect at the end of the spring semester. Per Black Hawk college president, Dr. Betty Truitt, “this is the third phase of cuts.”

The first phase of cuts was made “back in 2015, in our small business development center out by South Park mall.”

The second phase of cuts were made at East Campus in Kewanee, when the men’s and women’s basketball teams were eliminated, along with the women’s volleyball team. These athletic programs were cut because “we did not have facilities that were Black Hawk College owned, so we were paying rental fees, and cleaning fees,” said Dr. Truitt.

“Here at the Quad Cites Campus, our athletic director (Gary Huber), has put together a very large budget plan for the athletics area, and many of those students (athletes), only get partial scholarships, so we are running our athletic programs at a profit, and it adds a lot to our enrollment numbers.”

State funding is simply not available like it was in the past. Vice president of finance and administration, Steve Frommelt said, “The state funding that we normally receive for the school was cut down by 6 million dollars in 2016, and 4 million dollars in 2017. “

“We would have had to have raised tuition 60 plus dollars per credit hour to cover the absence in state funding.”

One of the departments that was hit the hardest by this was the art department, and many people were left wondering how specific programs and professors were selected. According to Dr. Truitt, these were instructional decisions coming up from the five point six committee (includes both administration and faculty members), which has been meeting for months, with input from the deans and the vice president of instructions.

“In times of budget crisis some of those plans had been laid, this has been in discussions for quite some time with that committee which involves both faculty and administration.”

Board of Trustees member, Douglas Strand said, “These are not decisions that we like to make, and while a lot of people want to put the blame on us, it really comes down to the state not having enough money.”

“With how much money we have lost there is nothing else we can do, and unfortunately we are left to make business decisions that have a negative impact on people’s lives.”

The programs that have been cut will no longer be available to future students at Black Hawk, but students that were lucky enough to already be enrolled in these programs will get to finish them.

As for the possibility of the programs returning someday, Dr. Truitt said, “As soon as budget funding comes through it would depend on the amount and consistency of (funding) before the programs would be considered for reinstatement.”

The state of Illinois has been without a budget now for more than 600 days in a row.

There are ways that this could be prevented from happening again. Make a call to our state representatives, senators, or even Bruce Rauner himself, and tell them why you think state run community colleges should receive more funding. If state funding continues to fall at this rate, then this may not be the last time that we see cuts that hurt our school.

The Daytrotter Experience

I hear this almost every weekend… “There’s nothing to do around here.”. Well, if you’re one of those people who thinks there’s nothing to do around here, have I got some good news for you! There’s a nightclub in Davenport called Daytrotter that offers live music multiple times throughout the year that even us on a college budget can afford.

I decided to and check Daytrotter out the other weekend when they had a show with three groups; Sister Wife, Naked Giants, and GGOOLLDD.

The opening act was Sister Wife from our own Rock Island. Pictured to the left is their lead singer, Samuel Carothers, playing some of their fresh songs. Their music is available on Spotify and other places on the web if you’re trying to check them out!

The next group to come to the stage was the psychedelic rock group, Naked Giants. They played a long set that had the crowd rocking out to their new age style of music. Their hit track, Pyramids, had the crowd jumping around that you’d have to see for yourself to believe.

 

The headlining act of the night was a band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, called GGOOLLDD.

GGOOLLDD performing one of their hits.

GGOOLLDD is a bit more popular than the other two groups and have singles that I’m sure a some of you reading this have heard before. They put on an AMAZING show. Their front-woman, Margaret Butler, was one of the most interactive people I’ve ever seen on stage ( She reminded me of when Big N Rich came to fair a couple years back the way she got the crowd going). She would go out and dance among the crowd during her set, and even kneeled on the ground and sang directly to one of the audience members.

GGOOLLDD’s front-woman, Margaret Butler.

GGOOLLDD is an electro-pop group made up of 5 people, with major hit single Undercovers (that I suggest all of you look into) along with many other bangers.

The atmosphere at Daytrotter is the exact one many of us college kids are looking for. A personal venue that allows for only about 100 people. They even have a full bar, for those of us who are over twenty-one, to make the dancing come a bit easier. I would HIGHLY recommend crossing the river and checking out this place if you haven’t already! They have a show coming up next month on the 15th. I hope to see you there!

ICC Tuition Forum

The Inter-Club Council held a meeting February 2^nd which opened with a tuition Forum by Dr. Truitt, BHC President and Steve Frommelt, VP of Finance and Administration. They came to discuss with students a possible tuition increase for next semester and other financial issues the campus is facing.

Mr. Frommelt showing  students graphs of BHC operating funds

First on the agenda was Steve Frommelt who explained where the differences in revenue for the college are coming from. The main problem he said that we were facing was a large decrease in funding from the state. Dr. Truitt added, “If you have any energy left at the end of the day, contact your legislatures and ask them to put more money into higher education.”

Mr. Frommelt went on to talk about the tuition increase of around two-dollars per credit hour to keep the institution where it needs to be.  After the presentations, they turned it over to a Q & A portion for students. A large majority of the questions asked were about the possibilities of which professors and classes would have to be cut. Dr. Truitt answered, “We want the least amount of staff reductions as possible.” She continued, “We will not be taking away classes that are having hundreds of credit hours a semester.”

Dr. Truitt answering student’s questions

They closed the meeting after answering dozens of questions from students, who seemed content with the answers given.

Basketball Live Stream

With the busy schedule’s of college students, it sometimes makes it hard for them to go and support the schools athletic programs throughout the week. For those of you that can’t catch the games in person, but still want to see the action, are in luck.

Black Hawk College now offers a live stream for all men’s and women’s home basketball games on a YouTube channel titled “BHC Athletics”. You can catch the games while they happen, or go back and watch them later.

This feature will not only benefit fans, but players who have aspirations to transfer and play at bigger colleges. Assistant men’s basketball coach, Keith Sutton, had this to say about the games being live streamed,”I think this is great for our guys. I wish there would have been a way for every game to be put online back when I was playing. It really changes the whole landscape of recruiting.”

Hopefully other programs at Black Hawk will follow suit, and start live streaming games to gauge more interest from fans, and to also give more national exposure to the athletes.

Black Hawk Club Fair

 

Black Hawk students Christian and Karina talk with students Alejandra and Karen about their organization.

Matthew Hayes

Last Wednesday was the kick-off event for all clubs and organizations across campus here at Black Hawk College. Students had the opportunity to talk with representatives from different clubs and decide whether or not they had the right stuff for them. They made the event fun with different candies and games at the tables as well as a sheet to fill out with stickers from three different tables to be entered to win a prize. Hundreds of students put their names down to join different clubs, and hopefully you did too! If not, it’s never too late! There are flyers posted all over the school that you can look at and get contact information to join your favorite club!

 

Upcoming Events

The spring semester of 2017 has kicked off! Below is a list of the upcoming events in January and February.

• January 20th- March 9th , Art Space Gallery Exhibit. The exhibit is located on the first floor of building 4.
• January 24th, PaCE Information Night. For students interested in learning more about a variety of  classes offered at Black Hawk College. It will be held from 4:30-6:30, at the adult learning center. 4610 Blackhawk Commons Drive, Rock Island.
• January 24th, Health Care Career Programs Overview. From 5-6:30, at Black Hawk Colleges Health Sciences Center.
• January 25th, Veterinary Technology FYI Night. 5:30-7:30, @ the Veterinary Sciences Center, East Campus.
• January 26th, Artist reception for Art Space Gallery Exhibit. 4:00-6:00.
• February 1st, Transfer Wednesday- Western Illinois University. 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, in the Advising Center.
• February 7th, Transfer Tuesday- St. Ambrose University. 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, in the Advising Center.
• February 16th, Artist reception for Art Space Gallery Exhibit. 4:00-6:00, building 4.
• February 22nd, Transfer Wednesday- Augustana College. 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, in the Advising Center.
• February 20th, Presidents Day- College Closed!
• February 23rd, FYI Night. 6:00-8:00, in the Hawks Nest (Building 4).

Tanner Rowe

EPIShock

EpiShock

Pharmaceuticals gone wild

By Larry M. Burge II

Recently, a new public outrage has hit the scene with the announcement from Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, daughter of Senator Joe Mancin (D-VA), that the price for the life-saving emergency anti-allergen EpiPen would increase from $57 to close to $700 for a two shot package. That follows a trend of massive drug price increases in the last decade, and especially the last four years, of life-saving drugs costs controlled by relatively few pharmaceutical corporations located (at least physically) in the United States.

Drugs like Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug that fights cancer and parasitic diseases and saw its price go from $13.50 to $750 overnight. Solvaldi, a drug that cures Hepatitis C and costs $1000 per pill. Insulin prices for diabetics has tripled in the last decade, Cycloserine, which combats tuberculosis, saw its costs go from $16 to $360.

Mylan CEO Bresch blames the increase on The Affordable Care Act (Obama care), despite the reporting of her salary going from 2.3 million to 15 million dollars per year, and the continuing criticism of her decision to move the corporate headquarters to the Netherlands, many claim a move to avoid US taxes. Breach’s father has decried the move publicly. Interestingly, Mylan was able to recently squash an attempt by an Israeli company to introduce a low cost version of the EpiPen with the help of the US Food and Drug Administration, which is staffed with numerous attorneys and consultants that were formerly on the payroll of major US pharmaceutical corporations.

Unfortunately, BHC no longer has a nurse on site that could administer to any student in need a dose of Epinephrine, the medication in the EpiPen, should a student find themselves in need and unable to get an EpiPen for whatever reason. Fortunately, 9-year Moline Fire Department veteran paramedic Eric Becker reports that the standard response time for the MFD to reach BHC in the event of an emergency is 3-5 minutes, and they are prepared to give any patient in need a dose of Epinephrine. Mr. Becker states that during his employment with the MFD, he has had to administer the drug 10-15 times. He also states that since the MFD does not use EpiPens, they are not affected by the massive price increase. However, he adds, the emergency services of smaller communities rely on the EpiPen and they would certainly be affected by the price increase.

The enormous price increases of many life-saving drugs are bound to affect every citizen through higher premiums for health insurance coverage and/or higher taxes. Only time will tell in any threatened Congressional investigations bear any fruit or relief of these unimaginable cost increases.