6/6/2000 • Issue #37 News & Views Class of 2000 BCC graduates will mark educational, professional and personal milestones when the college awards nearly 1500 degrees and certificates at 7 p.m. on June 9 in the BCC gymnasium. Tony Ventrella, sports director for KIRO TV, and student Michael McDermott, a member of the All-Washington Academic Team and president of Phi Theta Kappa honor society, will address the crowd. BCC will honor its first-ever graduates in the Information Technology - Network Support program during commencement. A separate ceremony to honor English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) and high school completion students takes place at 7 p.m. on June 8 in the Carlson Theatre. Congratulations to all our grads! Best of BCC Awards President Floten gave first-time awards to college personnel  who made outstanding contributions this year during her year-end speech last week. Congratulations to the following “top dogs” of 1999-2000:  Jack Surendranath and the Science Division, Sharon Carpenter (Continuing Education), Michael Talbott and Tim Kennedy (Telecommunications), Sharon Kline (Grants, Institutional Advancement) and John Carroll and the Grounds Crew (Campus Operations). The winners received a $4,000 voucher to continue the achievements within their respective programs. New Leaders for the New Year The faculty, classified and student government association welcome new leaders for the 2000-01 academic year. Taking the helm next year as new presidents are: Jim Ellinger (faculty association), Julie Freeman (classified staff association) and Sara Needleman-Carlton (student government association). We look forward to the energy and vision the new leaders will bring to BCC during the coming academic year. Corporate Recognition for NWCET The NorthWest Center for Emerging Technologies was awarded a certificate of recognition from the Corporate and Foundation Alliance (CFA). CFA members, including executives from Microsoft and Boeing, recognized the NWCET for its exemplary efforts to improve science, math, engineering and technology education. Congratulations to the NWCET staff for continued excellence in Information Technology education and training. Winning Season for BCC Athletics BCC athletic teams wrapped up a successful spring season with two placements in the regional league. The women’s tennis team placed second at the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) tournament in Spokane in May. Head coach Jason Chapman was voted the league’s “Coach of the Year.” The men’s baseball team also headed to the playoffs and finished fifth in the NWAACC tournament in Wenatchee. Although they did not make the playoffs, the women’s softball team had their best season ever, finishing 18-17 overall. With many new coaches coming on board, we look forward to the exciting sports seasons ahead. A Super Staffer After being praised as “the glue that holds the Media and Communications division together,” Bess Parks was named the classified staff association’s Employee of the Month for May. Bess, an administrative assistant in the division office, has been with the college since 1974. Colleagues appreciate her thorough knowledge of the division, helpfulness and ability to work with diverse groups of people. Now Showing Stop by the BCC Gallery in the Library Media Center this summer to view works from promising BCC art students. All works on display were selected by BCC art faculty. The gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday during the summer. News from Student Government In recent ASBCC elections, students overwhelmingly (74%) voted against a $14 per quarter parking fee to subsidize a new student parking garage on campus. This and other important campus issues will go to the newly-elected ASBCC board of directors: Sara Needleman-Carlton (president), Diana Marealle (vice president of student affairs), Maria Villa (vice president of finance and communications) and Yvan Nasr (chief justice). The student leaders, who will serve during the next academic year, were formally inducted last week. A Great Step for Students Tuition and fee payments just got a little easier for BCC students with the initiation of the new Student Tuition Easy Pre-Payment Plan (STEPP). The program allows students to make payments in three separate installments two months prior to the start of the quarter instead of one large payment. To learn more about this new feature, visit <http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/bccweb/howtoenroll/stepp.stm> on the BCC website. Movers & Shakers Congratulations to these BCC faculty, staff and students on recent accomplishments: ?       Cheryll Leo-Gwin, director of Arts 2000, has been busy adding her artistic touches to the Bellevue community. She recently completed three public art works for Hopelink (formerly the Multi Service Center of King County) including a granite quilt, a six-foot stained glass structure and a mixed media mural. The unveiling ceremony of Cheryll’s work took place on May 31. ?       The Jibsheet, under the leadership of faculty advisor James Torrence and student editor Todd Meakin, was awarded an honorable mention for general excellence in a community college newspaper at the Northwest regional awards of the Society of Professional Journalists last month. See the Jibsheet’s new format on newsstands across campus. ?       Congratulations to faculty member and artist Virginia Paquette and grounds manager John Carroll on the completion of BCC’s new “Millennium Garden.” The art installation, which features a marble bench and garden accented by colorful mosaic tiles, is located across from the Student Union Building. The project was funded by the Washington State Arts Commission Percent for Art Project. ?       Ruthmary Braden, counselor and instructor with the Counseling Center, was profiled in The College Survival Newsletter, a national publication for educational institutions. The article features Ruthmary’s teaching style and successful use of educational tools. ?       ABE/GED instructor Barbara Wright will be a featured presenter at the Adult Literacy and Technology Conference in Washington D.C. this month. She will discuss a new model assessment system for adult basic education classes in our state. ?       National results are in for the 1999-2000 American Math Association of Two-Year Colleges student math league competition. BCC math students placed fifth in the nation and first in the regional competition. Students William Yip and Albert Chang ranked nationally. BCC faced tough competition from 143 other two-year schools - and brought high marks home to BCC! Campus Calendar June 8          ESL/GED Graduation Ceremony, Carlson Theatre                         Parenting Panel, N201 June 9          Spring Quarter Ends Commencement Ceremony, Gymnasium June 13-14              E2E & Microsoft Mentor Institute, NWCET June 19         Summer Quarter Begins                         Campus Summer Hours Begin July 4          Independence Day Holiday August 3                Summer Quarter Ends Up-to-date campus events may be found on the BCC Intranet at: http://intranet.bcc.ctc.edu (click on Events Calendar). College Relations Corner Grapevine Goes Monthly The Grapevine will be published monthly until fall quarter begins. Look for the next issues in early July, August and September. Have a great summer! In the News BCC was mentioned in a May 16 Seattle Times article about a new $1.5 million federal grant to set up technology certificate programs at the University of Washington. Suzanne Marks was quoted in the article, saying the new program will provide BCC students with more access to the new IT-related courses at UW. BCC’s new Building R made local news in The Daily Journal of Commerce (5-22), Eastside Business Journal (5-26) and the Eastside Journal (5-24 and 5-25). The Eastside Journal  and Eastside Business Journal articles focused on the need for the building after the loss of the Robinswood campus in 1999, while the Daily Journal of Commerce reported on the energy-efficient features of Building R. Last week, KOMO featured BCC’s new smoking policy and compared it to the University of Washington’s handling of the issue. On the Web Look for these helpful new links and sites: ?       Class schedules on the Web: View summer and fall classes online at http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/bccweb/schedule ?       Campus Directory:  Log onto http://intranet.bcc.ctc.edu to access the PDF format of the recently revised campus phone directory. A PDF allows you to view the publication exactly as it appears in print and gives you the option to print any page in the document. ?       Check out this new BCC site:  Educator-to-Educator Institute at http://www.nwcet.org/e2e/ Off the Vine Baby bliss came a few weeks early for BCC staff members Tom and Diem O’Rourke. Their daughter Jasmine arrived on Saturday, three weeks ahead of schedule. Jasmine weighed in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces and is already home with new parents Tom and Diem. Talk about coincidence -  Jeff Johnson and Cynthia Johnson work side-by-side in Continuing Education’s Factoria Center office. Although the two Johnsons are not related, Jeff and Cynthia recently discovered that their grandfathers lived in the same area and graduated from the same high school in the early 1900’s.