Author: Mark Young

Community

Symone Sanders to speak at annual MLK celebration

Mark Young

  Political contributor Symone Sanders will be the keynote speaker for the sixth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration. The event will be a part of MLK and Black History month celebrations from Del Mar College and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Sanders will kick off the activities, which will go on for the rest of January and the month of February. Some of the activities include showings of “I Am Not Your Negro” and “Get Out” along with a performance by Step Akfrika, the world’s first professional step company. Sanders’ keynote address will be given at 6:30 p.m.…

Campus

Make sure you are able to leave

Mark Young

Graduation coaches, door prizes offered at Jan. 30 workshop While graduation may seem a long time away, the steps to actually graduate are closer than you may think. For the spring semester, if you want to graduate, you need to apply by Feb. 23. To help students complete the application, the Title V Department will be holding a Countdown to Commencement event open to all students. Students who attend will be able to not only submit their graduation applications, but will meet with graduation coaches, financial planning counselors and other Title V representatives from the Career Readiness Institute. The DMC…

Campus

DMC faces possible payment

Mark Young

Mark Young myoung@foghornnews.com Del Mar College owes a former employee over half a million dollars after losing a lawsuit over a contract dispute. Former history professor Bruce Olson sued the college in June 2012, after Olson felt the college was breaching a contract that had come from mediation of a settlement from two previous lawsuits Olson had filed against the college. During mediation from the first two lawsuits, Del Mar College agreed to allow Olson to participate in an early retirement program if he promised to drop the lawsuits and release Del Mar College from liability. The two previous lawsuits…

Community

DMC, KEDT join forces for StoryCorps project

Mark Young

Mark Young myoung@foghornnews.com A rainy day did not stop members of Del Mar College and KEDT from coming together for the kickoff of StoryCorps coming to Corpus Christi. StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization that was created to record the conversations of everyday Americans, which are then logged in the Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. It has become one of the largest oral history projects, with over 65,000 interviews from all 50 states, and will now include 150 conversations from the people of Corpus Christi. The kickoff opened with Don Dunlap, the KEDT president and general manager, saying he…

Campus

DMC looks at degree options

Mark Young

myoung@foghornnews.com Del Mar College is looking into the possibility of offering as many as three bachelor’s degrees in the future. The guidelines for the college offering bachelor’s degrees were outlined by Beth Lewis, provost and vice president for academic affairs, at the Oct. 10 Board of Regents meeting. According to Lewis, the opportunity for the degrees would come from Senate Bill 2118, which was passed earlier this year. The bill gives public junior colleges the opportunity to have up to three baccalaureate degree programs for applied science, technology and nursing if they have demonstrated a workforce need. If offered, Lewis…

Campus

Dean to advance learning resources

Mark Young

myoung@foghornnews.com For Cody Gregg, the new dean of Learning Resources, libraries are more than just a place to find books. Originally from West Texas, near Amarillo, Gregg received a Master of Arts in English as a Second Language degree and a Bachelor of Arts for double major in English and History degree from the University of Texas-Pan American, now UT-Rio Grande Valley, as well as a Master in Library and Information Science degree from the University of North Texas. Gregg has worked in a variety of roles in his more than 20-year career, having served as an English professor, director…

Campus

Dean up for challenge

Mark Young

myoung@foghornnews.com @foghornmark Bringing over a decade of experience, Kristina Wilson, the new dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, hopes to make all departments better for faculty and students. While originally from South Texas, Wilson has studied at numerous institutions across Texas. She received a Doctorate in Educational Leadership degree from Lamar University, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas-Pan American and a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Texas at Austin, but is coming to DMC from South Texas College in McAllen. Her role as the dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment will…

Campus, Community

Sites offer half off

Mark Young

myoung@foghornnews.com Nearly a dozen local attractions are teaming up this month to offer 50 percent off — and a break — to visitors. With Harvey still fresh in the minds of many, Paulette Kluge, the CEO of the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau, wanted a way for residents of the recovering Coastal Bend to have some fun. “After the hurricane, one of the things that I kept hearing was that people need a break,” Kluge said. Kluge set up the discount after hearing about it from the New Orleans office of the CVB, who offered a similar program after…

Campus, Forum

Famed civil rights attorney visits DMC

Mark Young

Mark Young myoung@foghornnews.com For Del Mar College Hall of Famer Marjorie Bryant-Sparrow, the chance to meet civil rights attorney Morris Dees was worth the decades-long wait. “I wanted him to know that he saved my life,” Bryant-Sparrow said. “I’m trying really hard to keep my calm and not fangirl, but he did so much for me and so many others.” In the ‘80s, Dees went after the people behind the Bethesda Home for Girls in Mississippi, where the residents were abused. Bryant-Sparrow had been a resident of the home for around two years. “I was there from 1982 to 1984,…

Book Review

McQueen rants about ‘FAKE NEWS’

Mark Young

Dan McQueen, the former Corpus Christi mayor who infamously resigned after 37 days in office, wrote a book, although reading it is much closer to an experience. I could write an entire thesis on the book, there is truly so much to talk about. But let’s start with the cover. The cover of “37 Day Mayor – Truth – FAKE-NEWS – America’s Future” reminds me of a fake magazine cover that I had to make in my sophomore high school computer class with Microsoft Word (yes, not even Paint). I got a B on the assignment out of pity; a…