Construction and Renovation: Taft College is still undergoing construction and renovation. The administration building and library are now complete with only library landscaping to be finished. The math/science building is also nearing completion. After it is completed, the renovation project will then focus on the tech arts building. The construction has been hard on staff, faculty, and students, but results are now being seen.

New Co-Chair: The Liberal Arts Division has a new co-chair—Dr. Chris Chung-wee. He will be overseeing all things English. The division also has a new full-time English instructor—Jessica Grimes. She replaces an instructor who has taken on other duties.

Comp Exchange: TC English faculty has been invited to the Fall Comp Exchange, which includes Bakersfield College and California State University Bakerfield. The event will be held October 24 at CSUB. The Liberal Arts Division is sponsoring a visit by author Lu Chi Fa. He will...

continue reading →

SLO Revisions: The English Department at Cerro Coso Community College covers the largest geographical service area (18,000 square miles) of any community college in California and can sometimes find it difficult to get together for anything other than a virtual email meeting. But this last September the Cerro Coso English department rallied faculty members together at the Indian Wells Valley Campus for the important task of SLO revision. Using an agreed upon set of composition course skills, the department broke up into teams of two and over the course of one morning updated its entire line of composition course offerings.

New Reading/Basic Skills Specialist: The department hired Laura Vasquez as the new Reading/Basic Skills faculty member at the IWV campus in Ridgecrest.

35th Anniversary: The college celebrated its 35th anniversary September 8. As its anniversary theme, the college chose “Educate, Innovate, Inspire, Serve … The Tradition Continues.” The...

continue reading →

The ESL Department: ESL at Bakersfield College has split into its own department and has recently hired new ESL faculty to cover a growing number of classes.

Moton and Dumler Release New Text: McGraw Hill plans a spring 2009 release for the new composition textbook “Navigating America: Information Competency and Research for the 21st Century” written by BC faculty members David Moton and Gloria Dumler.

Wayland Cycles America: BC English professor Scott Wayland cycled across fifteen states, from Maine to California. Some writing about his experience may be in the works.

Works Consulted

Moton, David. “Re: BC English Updates.” Email to the director. 13 Oct 2008.

Meeks, Elizabeth. “The Ride of a Lifetime: BC professor Scott Wayland takes on the challenge of a lifetime and cycles across 15 states.” The Renegade Rip. 7 Feb 2008. Section: News. 13 Oct 2008. http://www.therip.com.

Wayland, Scott. Finding Home: A Journey into...

continue reading →

(Including Cerro Coso Community College, Taft College, Bakersfield College, Porterville College)

Cerro Coso Community College

LITERARY JOURNAL: After many delays, Metamorphoses 2007-2008 (the college’s journal of literature and art) will be release at the end of April.

CC ONLINE: CC Online has officially adopted Moodle as its online course delivery method, phasing out its FrontPage-based classes. CC Online provides AA degrees online, and so the English Department continues to build its online course options to keep up with demand. Multi-Ethnic Literature and one Basic Skills Composition course have been added to the many online English classes.

BASIC SKILLS: The Basic Skills Committee is now chaired by English Department faculty member Corey Marvin. Online and physical meetings generate many new ideas on improving Basic Skills student success rates. Cerro Coso has six campuses altogether (including CC Online), and so the challenge in implementing changes involves looking at how...

continue reading →

Taft College is experiencing big change. Professor Gary Graupman submitted the following update as a Region V Newsflash.

Taft College is progressing through an exciting time of demolition and reconstruction. Funding the project through a bond measure passed a few years ago, the college planners are moving forward with the scheme. Hopefully, the revamping of the Administration Building will be completed some time in December of this year, and the new library will be completed in January of 2008. The work on the Math/Science Building has started with the classes and offices now moved to portables. After this project, the Tech Arts Building work will begin. Work has been completed on the new Child Care Center.

Another change at the college has been one of personnel. The president moved on to another college this last...

continue reading →