Bikers Throttle Brain Tumors at JCCC

Here’s a great example of the type of activities JCCC should support more often. They’re feel-good events that make a difference and they bring people to campus.

And would it hurt for a member of the Board of Trustees to show up and offer a scholarship or two to the families whose children are affected by brain tumors?

Organizer Jeff Griswold said about 150 bikers donated $35 each to participate in the three-hour ride, and the rest of the money came from other donations. Afterward they met at Johnson County Community College for lunch and a celebration.

via Ride raises money to fight brain tumors in children – KansasCity.com.

JCCC Hosts Tea Party

Kathleen McDaniel, 9, of Overland Park and her American Girl doll watched the entertainment Sunday at the thrid annual American Girl Tea Party at the Regnier Center at Johnson County Community College. Organized by 12-year-old Madison Crook and her family, the tea party raised money to help dig water wells in Africa. Susan Pfannmuller/Special to The Star.

via American Girl Tea Party at JCCC – KansasCity.com.

Undocumented JCCC graduate arrested on Capitol Hill

Ricardo Quinones, 20, a Johnson County Community College graduate, and University of Kansas student studying psychology states, “I am tired of being told I don’t belong here. This is my home. This is my country. I believe passing the DREAM Act will show that our society doesn’t believe in criminalizing children for the decisions of their parents.”

via KC undocumented students arrested on Capitol Hill | KansasCity.com Press Release Central.

JCCC: Copyright vs. Open Records of Open Meetings

I have posted videos produced by JCCC which include some Board of Trustee meetings. I will continue to do so under section 107 of the copyright law – FAIR USE.

“Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.” – U.S. Copyright Office.

JCCC began asserting its copyright because it says videos posted on YouTube took segments of the JCCC Board of Trustees meeting out of context and violated it’s copyright. It also says these and other JCCC copyright videos were posted on the internet.

Yet, one of the “four factors” used to determine the violation of fair use is “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.” This basically means, one cannot claim the entire product or the heart of the product under fair use.

In reality, this factor encourages users to employ the less-is-more approach by selecting segments of the original work instead of the entire product.

Board meetings aren’t the only things JCCC broadcasts and uploads to the web. Other programs on the JCCC Video Server and JCCC YouTube Chanel include: cooking, community talk shows, news programs, classes, Kansas tours, sabbatical reports — to name a few. Will JCCC also exert it’s copyright over these programs?

Doug Anstaett, Executive Director of the Kansas Press Association, disagrees with JCCC’s copyright approach to a video of an open meeting:

The arrogance of those in positions of leadership at Johnson County Community College never ceases to amaze me. To think that a public body would record their meetings and then require the public to get their written permission to utilize them is a clear illustration of why government is held in such low regard.

JCCC attorney Mark Ferguson thinks the college can control how online video of the board meetings can be used by the public:

Just because something is subject to KORA and KOMA does not provide carte blanche authority to use the information for any purpose and in any way desired by the public. KORA and KOMA permit the restrictions on the use of public information (i.e., commercial use, etc.).

Ferguson even claims JCCC would have rights to recordings made by citizens at Board meetings:

The fact that a citizen makes their own audio or video of the JCCC Board of Trustees meeting does not change the content or grant the person recording some unrestricted license to use the material in any way he/she desires.

via JCCC: Copyright vs. Open Records of Open Meetings.

Tuberculosis Case Identified at JCCC

Posted on the JCCC electronic mail server, Infolist:

Tuberculosis Case Identified at JCCC

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Johnson County Health Department is investigating a case of tuberculosis (TB) at Johnson County Community College. JCCC and the Health Department have identified those at risk and are offering education, evaluation and testing.

This is the second case of TB to be investigated at JCCC; the first occurred in February 2009.

The Johnson County Community College staff is working closely with us to ensure that students are informed and aware of their exposure and testing options,” said Nancy Tausz, disease containment division director of the Johnson County Health Department.

TB is spread through the air by close, prolonged contact (several hours a day) with someone who has the disease. Symptoms of TB may include a cough of longer than three weeks, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, chills, fever and coughing up blood.

All known active TB cases within the county are monitored and treated appropriately by the Health Department. For more information about TB, call the Johnson County Health Department, 913-826-1224.

Miguel, what is TB, exactly? How is it spread?
Why are you asking me? Got to cdc.gov/tb

Previous TB case at JCCC
(virtually identical press release to the one above)

Campus Ledger report on previous TB case

Olathe university refuses to host immigration event – KansasCity.com

JCCC Foundation President, Sandy Price, at the Foundation's Dollars for Scholars fundraiser held each year at the Ritz Charles in Overland Park, Kan. The new venue Kris Kobach has secured for an anti-immigration rally.

Should the Ritz Charles host Kobach’s anti-immigration rally, I don’t know that I could attend another Dollars for Scholars event there. JCCC’s event works to help students while Kobach’s event works to hurt them.

I just wouldn’t be able to set foot there again knowing they supported his poison.

This week, University President Edwin Robinson refused to allow the event on its campus. He said discussion on websites, as well as emails he received, made him worry about the safety of the campus and staff as well as the school’s reputation as an impartial place for public discussion.

“I don’t mind a clash of ideology, but the rhetoric on both sides was escalating to the point that I was concerned,” Robinson said today. “(The event) was taking on a dimension that was larger than a place of discourse.”

When the university agreed to it, the event was presented to university staff as a “forum on immigration,” Robinson said. He became uncomfortable with the resulting titles as an “Immigration Law Enforcement Rally” and the “Illegal Means Illegal” rally.

“Honestly, the appearance of the controversial Sheriff from Arizona just added fuel to the fire,” he said.

via Olathe university refuses to host immigration event – KansasCity.com.

Bus routes linking KC and Johnson County open today – KansasCity.com

Johnson County Kansas - Transit Department - The JO

The immediate impact this expanded bus service will have comes in the form of employment opportunities available in Johnson County. However, a long-term effect will come in the educational access it provides KC metro students and the diversity it will bring those students will bring to our institutions.

“It may be one of the most significant transportation developments in Johnson County that doesn’t involve asphalt.

Starting today, the county will embark on one of its biggest bus service expansions, including a new route connecting Johnson County with the Waldo area and downtown Kansas City.

The nearly $3 million expansion will provide 16 daily rush-hour trips, plus less frequent midday service, between the University of Kansas Edwards Campus and Kansas City’s Waldo bus hub near 75th Street and Wornall Road. From there, riders can catch an express bus to downtown.

The buses will run along Quivira Road and 75th Street, also serving Johnson County Community College and Oak Park Mall while feeding the K-10 Connector route to Lawrence.”

via Bus routes linking KC and Johnson County open today – KansasCity.com.

Migrant Students Harvest Hope

Latino Writers Collective members sign autographs after leading the Harvest of Hope Leadership Academy (HHLA) writer’s workshop, June 24, 2010.

I did something I never thought I’d do.
I autographed a book written by someone else.

Oh, and it wasn’t just any writer or any book — it was Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street.” And the truth is I did it proudly and repeatedly.

With Latino Writers Collective members Xanath Caraza, Gabriela Lemmons, Sofiana Olivera, and Jason Sierra, I helped lead a poetry workshop for Harvest of Hope. This college immersion program for migrant youth in high school lets students experience college life for three weeks. They take classes and learning how to set and manage their educational goals. As a former migrant farmworker and child laborer, I look forward to this workshop all year. It fulfills me.

We began this year’s workshop by sharing a meal with the students in one of the cafeteria dining rooms at the University of Kansas. I chose a table featuring mostly young women. I just felt comfortable with the energy they radiated. Besides being a Gay Latino, I’m never really quite sure how young Latino men will react to me and I don’t react well to machismo. Those at our table shared information — nothing too personal — it was the typical dinner chat.

Then the workshop began.