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Pro-life is here to stay The dialogue must change PERSPECTIVES
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@Collegian_GCC @gcc.collegian The Collegian: The GCC Newspaper Friday, February 18, 2022
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Collegian The Award-Winning Grove City College Student Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 14
Trustees have their say
Anonymous faculty letter continues CRT discussion Ayden Gutierrez News Editor
The Grove City College Board of Trustees said Wednesday that they have formed a committee to investigate “alleged instances of mission-drift” in response to a series of questions about critical race theory at the college raised by parents, students, faculty, staff and others. In addition to establishing the committee, the board acknowledged those questions about the college’s mission,
COVID no longer a worry?
vision and values. “We unqualifiedly reaffirm GCC’s Christ-centered mission and commitment to a free society, traditional values and the common good. That has not changed one iota and will not change on our watch,” the board stated. “In particular, the Board categorically rejects Critical Race Theory and similar ‘critical’ schools of thought as antithetical to GCC’s mission and values.” The promise of the board came days after an anonymous letter – purportedly
written by faculty members – was addressed and delivered to the Board of Trustees. The letter claims that CRT has broken basic institutional processes. The anonymous letter is one of many correspondences in an ongoing controversy regarding the relation of the topic to the college. The letter has been circulating in the college community, both on campus and online, as many notable users on Twitter have shared their thoughts on social media. Joshua Abbotoy, execu-
tive director of The American Reformer, promoted the anonymous faculty letter on Twitter and solicited current and former faculty and staff to sign it. “I have been approached by a group of current and former faculty members who put together and support a letter to the Grove City Board of Trustees regarding the CRT situation at Grove City,” Abbotoy tweeted on February 7. He had no comment when The Collegian contacted him for this story. The letter, which was pur-
portedly written by former and current faculty members claiming that Critical Race Theory is being advocated on campus, suggests that the college is struggling. “Absent immediate attention and prompt reform, we fear that the damage the college has suffered will become permanent,” wrote the anonymous authors. The letter claimed that the CRT 3
51 faculty sign letter in support of college, on page 9
Gearing up for conference tourney
Nick Grasso Staff Writer
While the college experienced a surge of COVID cases during some parts of this spring semester, no masking or social distancing requirements were put in place by the administration. A greater number of students have self-reported symptoms, and the campus community has been able to live out a normal semester. The cumulative number of positive cases since Aug. 16 reached 411 – 300 student cases and 111 employee cases. Additionally, from Dec. 27 to Feb. 13, there were 113 positive student cases and 55 employee cases. With positive cases increasing at a rapid rate, the question of whether the school will institute preventive measures remains. The student body strongly embraced various mentalities on this issue, but the majority seem to be thankful the college remains dedicated to providing a normal semester. Freshman Trent Wick said, “I think the best thing that we can do is to allow people to make their own decisions. If someone is concerned about COVID, they can take any provisions they deem as necessary. Whether that’s a mask or vaccine, that’s up to them.” Junior Kurtis Sekera said, “It’s a good thing that the college isn’t using preventive measures, because it must mean cases aren’t that serious. It’s not an issue for the college right now, so if people start getting seriously sick, then it might become an issue.” During the 2021 fall semester, the campus was struck with an uptick in cases resulting in a mandatory masking period. Soon after, the mandate was lifted, and the normal semester continued. This semester, as the campus recently experienced an uptick, no mask mandate was imposed on the student COVID 3
MATTHEW SCHOONOVER
Junior Joshua McCray drives to the hoop on Wednesday night in a game against Westminster. Read all about it in Sports, page 12.
Nursing program partners with regional powerhouse
Ayden Gutierrez News Editor
Grove City College has signed an agreement with Cleveland Clinic that will allow nursing students to do clinical work in one of the world-class healthcare provider’s hospitals or outpatient centers. “Clinical agreements are needed so that nursing students can have access to clinical experiences in their fourth year of the nursing program,” said Nursing Program Director Janey A. Roach. “Cleveland Clinic is the newest agreement as we also have agreements with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Allegheny Health Network (AHN),”
Roach said. “Depending on where the student lives, if they choose to leave GCC after the third year once they graduate from Butler County Community College (BC3), they will need access to clinical experiences for the two of the courses in their fourth year.” The agreement marks a new phase for the college’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program, which was launched two years ago and will welcome its third class of students this fall. Members of the first class, now in their sophomore year, will soon be eligible to begin taking higherlevel courses that require 30 hours of clinical experience in professional settings like those in the Cleveland Clinic
system. “The recent agreement with the Cleveland Clinic is a great way to expand more partnerships with the nursing program to provide a wider base for clinical experiences,” said sophomore nursing student Emily Smyth. “Not only is expanding for the clinical experience a great thing, but maybe the potentiality of being hired by one of these great medical facilities is a great opportunity especially for this new program.” Having this and other agreements in place with regional hospitals and health care systems is necessary to deliver on the promise of the college’s innovative BSN program. Offered by Grove City Col-
lege’s Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing in partnership with BC3, the BSN program includes coursework at both campuses, which allows students to get an excellent, Christ-centered liberal arts and sciences education and high-quality clinical and professional training. “I could not be more excited about the partnership between our nursing program and the Cleveland Clinic,” said freshman nursing student Brooke Johncour. “This partnership will provide nursing students like myself with opportunities to gain clinical experience in some of the best hospitals in the country.” In tandem with the agreeNURSING 3