A Dragons’ win
Puzzle this
Page 6
Page 4
HutchCC volleyball clinches postseason home game
Quiz your brain with our new puzzles The student voice of Hutchinson Community College
www.hutchcollegian.com
November 1, 2019
Vol. 61 Issue 6
The current state of HutchCC campus By Tabitha Barr Editor in Chief
Multiple things are happening at Hutchinson Community College’s main campus. Students and staff have been questioning the happenings and situations arising during this fall semester. The cafeteria construction, the tennis courts, and HutchCC’s campus security and safety. HutchCC president Carter File met with The Collegian to discuss the topics that affect the campus.
Construction
For most of the students, the construction was somewhat out-ofthe-blue. In reality, the college has had the idea since 2002 and finally decided to resurrect this project within the past four years. File said the college wanted to update the cafeteria inside Parker Student Union because it “was an area that needed to be addressed.” It wasn’t as up-to-date as most of the other areas,
and the college wanted to change that, especially with the college’s growth over the years. With change can come inconvenience. The construction requires a workspace for the crews, which causes the first two rows of the union parking lot to be unusable for students and staff. Many students have expressed their frustrations. The college had limited parking space on the main campus beforehand, so losing two full rows takes a toll on everyone. “We knew that it was going to be a problem, and we were just going to have to bite the bullet,” File said. Students and staff are used to the convenient parking, but the college has more areas available. They’re just not right next door to the union or Lockman Hall. “The parking problem is a relative problem,” File said. Many colleges have drawbacks to their parking, and HutchCC is on that list until construction is finished. It’s the only way for the new renovations to happen, so students and staff need to keep in mind the big picture when feeling frustrated. “It might be difficult to find parking at the moment, but when the construction is finished,
Photos by Kenneth Ryan/Collegian HutchCC President Dr. Carter File speaks on safety and security of the main campus and how it’s a top priority.
it’ll be worth the wait,” File said.
Tennis courts
With the question of construction happening on campus, the tennis courts have been in the air for quite some time. “We’re going to do something with them,” File said. “There are two kinds of competing ideas. One of them is parking,” but also “there is a strong opinion on campus that we don’t want parking in the heart of our campus, but that we’d like to have more green space, more picnic areas.” The tennis courts, located south of Shears Technology Center, will be dealt with in the near future, but not until the current construction is complete and the school
decides exactly what they are doing with them.
Campus Security
HutchCC’s campus safety and security has been a big topic from last year to this year. They want all students to feel as safe as possible wherever they are on campus. File said the college only has one security officer employed, while others used are contracted from an outside source. An increased number of officers patrol dorms and the campus at night. “We feel like we’ve got adequate security,” File said. Recently, there have been an abundance of religious recruiters on campus during the day, and even at night. While
they have the freedom to speak and express their beliefs, especially at a publically-funded college, students have the right to tell them they’re not interested and to leave them alone. “If they are respectfully evangelizing, there’s nothing a public institution can do to stop them unless they are harassing students,” File said. There have been reports of these recruiters being confrontational and refusing to leave students alone. If they don’t respect a student’s wishes and continue to push, then students have a reason to file a grievance about harassment to Brett Bright, Vice President of Student Services. “If we don’t know about it, we can’t do any-
thing about it,” File said. The college needs the situation filed so they can know what to look out for and how to act in that situation. “If someone is making you uncomfortable, or someone is causing you to feel uncomfortable in the space you are in, then you should report that to the authorities so that we can take action on it,” File said. HutchCC wants every student to gain an education and feel safe while doing it. File gave one last thought about everything saying, “we want every student on campus to feel comfortable. We need to know if they’re not because we will always look into a complaint.”
A city manager’s take on leadership By Rachel Lyons Staff Writer
When John Deardoff started college at Saint Mary’s of the Plains, the only thing, he knew was that he wanted to play college football. Today, he is months away from retiring from his role as Hutchinson City Manager after nearly 40 years working in public-sector management. For one hour on Oct. 17, Deardoff wasn’t in his office working on a project, at a city meeting, or at home with his family. He was speaking in the Justice Theatre in Shears Technology Center to Dan Naccarato’s 34th Management Forum. Naccarato is a wellknown part of Hutchinson Community College,
with his famous saying, “Every day is a great day to study business” spotted upon whiteboards in Parker Student Union. Other Naccarato sayings include “every organization is a business” and “every day seems like a holiday around here”. With a review of Naccarato’s seven rules, Deardoff ’s presentation commenced. Deardoff introduced himself as a 40-year bureaucrat, who will retire in March or April, has a wife of 37 years, and three daughters, all of whom are out of college. While in college, Deardoff chose to major in political science. Upon graduation, Deardoff returned to Dodge City to serve as
Upcoming events Nov. 1-2 — Jazz and BBQ @ Emanual Lutheran Church 7 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Nov. 3 — A Life Celebration and Rememberance for Gabriel Tash @ Stringer Fine Arts Center 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Nov. 2 — Women’s Basketball vs. Washburn JV 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. Nov. 5 — Dillon Lecture Series - Fredi Lajvardi 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m.
Assistant City Manager, and then City Manager at Sterling for more than four years. He became Hutchinson Assistant City Manager for five years, returning to Dodge City as City Manager for 13 years, and finally to Hutchinson as City Manager for 15 years, upon retirement. But what is a City Manager? According to Deardorff, in a way the City Manager is the CEO of the city. Unlike a normal company however, a city is never closed. The work of the city is, for the most part, front-page news, and the media is always watching. The job of a city manager is also to build relationships with those in the community. One
of the most important examples of this given by Deardoff is the story of how he built a relationship with the owner of the Wiley Building. Eventually, he was able to persuade them to sell and reassure them that the they were doing the right thing when they second guessed themselves shortly before the sale went through. Deardoff closed with five things to know about leadership. “Leadership is about people, leadership requires courage, continued learning, (getting) the right people on the bus, and (working) hard and (being) nice.” Afterwards, HutchCC Economics Instructor Matt Wilper said that
The happenings around campus
he found it “wonderful to talk about a seasoned professional (and he) had wonderful insight on leadership and management”. HutchCC student Brian Nicewinder said “I didn’t have any clue that we had a city manager, (or) what the city does
Photo by Rachel Lyons/Collegian John Deardoff talks about leadership and presented ways to further ones role in that area.
Blue Dragons weekend forecast
Friday — High: 53 Low: 29 Saturday — High: 52 Low: 34 Sunday — High: 58 Low: 37
(in terms of) projects.” HutchCC President Carter File said, “I thought it was outstanding, it showed there are great public sector jobs for [those] desiring that kind of work. I thought John was very professional and had great info for students.”
Inside Scoop
Opinion: Page 2 - Emily Fehrman writes about her excitement about cuffing season Campus: Page 3 - Intramural sports program offering more options than before Campus: Page 4 - Aaron Strain gives an update of upcoming local elections.