SCENE THE
Fall Issue 2
Oct. 5, 2018
Day in the Life
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See pages 4-5
Good parenting See page 7
No panhandling See page 7
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
Where have all the flowers gone?
Campus moves toward ‘sustainable’ landscaping
By Jonny Geigle, Jason Ethridge and Joshua Phelps The Scene staff
By Jason Ethridge The Scene staff Many people have noticed a lack of color on the Forest Park campus this year. Gone are the flowers filling planters and window boxes. Gone are the mums lining stairs to the staff parking lot. Gone are the bright-red bushes along the cafeteria window. According to officials, the college is transitioning to a landscaping plan that’s more sustainable, viable and interactive. “Next year we should have some daffodils, some crocus, some freesia, a little bit of color,” said Facilities Supervisor Wolf Veverka, who came on board last November. “We all work at this together because, really, the students are our customers. We need to do what we can, in the area we can, to make the school as appealing and attractive as we can.” Last year, the college laid off former Facilities Manager Dennis Kozlowski, who was known for his green thumb. A private company, Ideal Landscaping, has been hired to mow grass on campus. These developments led some people to think that attempts to beautify Forest Park had fallen victim to districtwide budget cuts. But that’s not the case, said Interim Provost Julie Fickas. Some plants were removed because of disease, overgrowth or unsustainability, she said. Officials aren’t giving up efforts to maintain a campus filled with plant life, Fickas added. They’re just rethinking how to do it. “They have a master plan,” Fickas said. One of the main goals of Facilities Man-
Photo by Bethany Tyler
A statue in front of C Tower stands alone. It used to be surrounded by hydrangea shrubs that changed color in the fall.
Few students are getting U-Passes
Photo by Brian Ruth
Photo by Fred Ortlip
Top: Red geraniums and a shrub rose add color to an island outside the Student Center in the summer of 2017. Above: Ornamental grasses and annual flowers are growing in the same spot today. ager Josh Dewitte and Veverka, who has a dents and staff will be welcome to eat it. degree in biogeography and environmental Sustainability and viability aren’t the only sciences, is to create a more sustainable factors Veverka considered while developlandscape on campus, one that would be ing his three-year landscaping blueprint. more viable with less maintenance. “I plan to make the campus more interacThey still plan to put annuals in flower tive, greenspace-wise,” he said. beds, but they will add A flower bed next to more native species the cafeteria has been “What people have to planted with chocolate and use red granite rock and landscaping understand is that this mint that students will cloth instead of mulch. invited to pick at is nature. It doesn’t just be All of the ash trees no charge. The same grow overnight.” on campus will be cut will apply to blue sage down because of the - Facilities Supervisor Wolf Veverka in planters between E emerald ash borer, an Tower and the Theater invasive insect that Building. preys on ash trees, Veverka said. “We’re trying to put the word ‘communiForest Park will soon have 41 new trees, ty’ back into community college,” Veverka including black cherry, black walnut and said. red mulberry, thanks to Forest ReLeaf of Future projects include creating a butterMissouri, a non-profit organization that’s fly garden on campus with help from Misdedicated to restoring and sustaining urban souri Botanical Garden. It will replace the forests. It’s providing the trees at no charge. one planted by faculty and staff near the “Most every one of the trees we will be southwest corner of A tower in 2015. bringing in will provide food for both peoThat butterfly garden was destroyed by ple and animals,” Veverka said. Once the trees begin producing fruit, stuSee Flowers page 8
The Forest Park U-Pass program allows students to use public transportation for free, but only 16 percent are taking advantage of it. Some 5,321 students are enrolled in classes this fall. Only 826 students had obtained U-Passes as of Sept. 14, four weeks into the semester. “A lot of students, if they have a car, they feel they don’t need it,” said Ena Primous, manager of campus business services. “If they have some other type of transportation, they feel they don’t need it.” Primous expects another 300 to 400 more students to sign up for U-Passes by the end of the academic year. She sees the program as a valuable tool to help students succeed. “Making it to school, making it to work, making it to child care … It’s a universal pass that they can use for their daily lives,” Primous said. “It will help them succeed into getting their degrees.” St. Louis Community College students pay $1 per credit hour for the U-Pass program as part of the registration process. Those who pick up U-Passes can ride MetroLink and Metro buses for free. Forest Park general transfer student Willnelle Warren, 20, has been getting U-Passes for the past two years. “Those dollars coming back really add up,” he said. “I used to spend like $30 a week just on bus fare.” If purchased, Metro passes cost $78 a month. General studies student Tullaia Powell, 16, knows about U-Passes, but she didn’t get one this semester. “I get a ride from somebody who works nearby and just carpool,” she said. “It’s easier.” Five colleges and universities in St. Louis have U-Pass programs. That includes STLCC, Washington University, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Webster University and St. Louis University. Costs to schools vary, depending on individual programs. Some give U-Passes to all students, some give them to select students and some give them to faculty and students. “We offer this to schools because it’s an incredible incentive,” said Jerry Vallely, external communications manager
See U-Passes page 8
News
Food pantry helps students in need By Joshua Phelps The Scene staff
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Forest Park has a food pantry, but many on campus don’t know about it. The Brown Bag Cafe is a place where students can get non-perishable food items and, on occasion, fresh vegetables. “I think it’s a great idea that they have the Brown Bag Cafe open for students to get a snack, just so they can make it through their day,” said Brenda Bell-Foster, secretary for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The STEM department and other faculty and staff have donated items such as fruit cups, juice, ravioli, cheese Turner crackers, ramen noodles and nuts. Food also is purchased with funds from a $10,000 Bank of America grant. The Brown Bag Cafe has been operating for more than a year. It’s named after a similar program on the Meramec campus. “Because we have been blessed with so much food through the Bank of America grant, we haven’t had to go out and solicit a lot of food,” said Tamala Turner, program director at Forest Park. “We’ve had enough.” The pantry operates from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Room 215 of the Student Center. Students can go to Room 213 and ask Turner to unlock the door. Turner isn’t sure how many students have benefited from the Forest Park program, but there have been 634 “encounters” or visits
by students who sometimes return. “A lot of students don’t know about the program,” said volunteer Christopher Brooks, who also is a reporter for The Scene. Brooks said he and Turner have been putting up fliers around campus and trying to spread the word, hoping more students will take advantage of the program. Sky-Lar Tate, an administrative assistant on the Meramec campus, is a former beneficiary of its Brown Bag Cafe. She now helps operate it with Bella Hafezi, coordinator for the student assistance program. “The Brown Bag Cafe is a great program,” Tate said. “It really helped, especially me, as a student. I started here in 2013, and I was really hungry on campus, (and) somebody introduced me to the Brown Bag Cafe. It really changed my life, instead of going to class hungry.” Hafezi said a Meramec student first came up with the food-pantry idea in the fall of 2012. Students were surveyed to verify there was a need. The first Brown Bag Cafe opened the following year. The Brown Bag Cafe at Meramec accepts non-perishable and perishable items because it has a refrigerator and microwave. The food pantry’s space at Forest Park is much smaller. Sometimes Turner gets fresh vegetables from the biology department, which grows them in its greenhouse, but they have to be distributed quickly. “There’s two different ways we donate food,” said Angela NewMyer, associate professor of biology. “One is through the donations of single-serve quick meals, like cups of mac and cheese or soup. We also donate food in the form of fresh produce.”
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Oct. 5, 2018
Campus chatter Peter Howard, 48, general transfer “My favorite fast food is tacos from Taco Bell and Jack in the Box.”
Muhammadjan Sanaev, 23, computer science “Burger King. I like the Whopper Jr., cheeseburger and French fries.”
Rache Leone, 18, nursing “Raising Cane’s for the chicken strips and dipping sauces.”
Clara Winters, 20, graphic communications “Burger King. It’s cheap. The chicken nuggets are $1.69 for 10.”
What’s your favorite fast food? By Timothy Bold
Taniyah Meeks, 18, anesthesiology “Culver’s for their butter burgers and frozen custard. They are really good.”
Myro Dunn, 29, business administration “Imo’s for the provel cheese on my pineapple and chicken pizza.”
Devon Bennett, nursing professor “Steak ’n Shake for the strawberry shakes, French fries and the Cajun burger.”
Nick Setchfield, 24, general transfer “Arby’s for the Jalapeno poppers. It’s the only fast-food place with this item on the menu.”
Katy Hope, 20, dental hygiene “On Mondays, we order everything on the menu from McDonald’s. Obviously, we love the food.”
Aaron Riggins, 18, general transfer “Pizza Hut. They have the best chicken wings and Hawaiian pizza.”
Christine Crowder, Smart Start “Wendy’s because of the variety of items on the menu and beverages from the Coke machine.”
Courtney Penning, 19, dental hygiene “McDonald’s for the chicken nuggets and French fries.”
Layout by Jayy Dixon
Oct. 5, 2018
The Scene www.thescenefp.com
Page 3
A DAY IN LIFE O FOREST P
Photo by Timothy Bold
Applied mathematics major Samatha Gilmore, 22, uses a coil-building technique to create a basic geometric shape out of clay in the Art Annex. In the background are general transfer student Tommie Madescu, 20, left, and business major Stephen Pharel, 20.
General transfer student Brittany Tolive, 32, left, who is deaf, gets sociology class from interpreter Curie Lohrman, right, as interpreter C
Criminal justice major Jun Murphy, 40, right, talks to St. Louis police officer Ryan Strittmatter, 39, center, and campus police officer Charles Kierstead during the National Coffee with a Cop event in the cafeteria on Oct. 3.
Photo by Daniel Shular
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The Scene www.thescenefp.com
Oct. 5, 2018
N THE OF PARK Photo by Daniel Shular
Construction workers Rob Grzyb, 32, right, and Josh Givens, 36, look over floorplans on the third floor of the new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences building on Sept. 12.
Photo by Timothy Bold
s help with an assignment in Colleen Costello observes.
Photo by Daniel Shular
Baking and pastry arts major Kathryn Edwards, 20, left, laughs while classmates Alisa McCuller, 21, center left, Caran Touchette, 42, center, and Lauren Bryne, 20, center right, 20, serve ice cream and visitor Gail Todd, 84, samples desserts in the Hospitality Studies building as part of an ice-cream social on Sept. 27.
Nursing major Aminata Kamara, 19, right, and accounting major Maryan Musa, 18, left, dance as gospel singer Eunice U performs on the cafeteria stage as part of the African Pride Club’s oneyear anniversary celebration on Sept. 19.
Photo by Daniel Shular
Layout By Daniel Shular
Oct. 5, 2018
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News
9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Oct. 11 in Forest Park cafeteria
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Faculty advisers: Teri Maddox, Fred Ortlip The Scene is a publication written and designed by students at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110. The office is in F Tower, Room 408. The telephone number is (314) 644-9140. The e-mail address is the_scene_fp@yahoo.com. All text, photos, graphics and other content are property of The Scene and may not be used without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of St. Louis Community
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College, its Board of Trustees or administration. The Scene welcomes opinion pieces and letters to the editor. They should be signed and include the writer’s student or staff number. They can be mailed to the above addresses or delivered by hand. We reserve the right to edit for length and taste. The Scene will run classified ads for students free of charge. They should be submitted in the manner described above.
Oct. 5, 2018
Uncensored
Letting kids bloom like flowers By Soroda Nasiri The Scene staff Imagine you’re a gardener and you want to grow beautiful flowers. You hope to attract visitors with their beauty, elegance and maybe even their fragrance. You know that you won’t use pesticides, or synthetic or sewage-based fertilizers. To achieve this, you amend the soil and make sure that sunlight and water are adequate. You’re constantly monitoring plant development. The approach you take depends on the type of flowers. Some thrive on minimal attention while others need much more. Some gardeners are known to even talk or sing to seeds or plants to give them a little extra love. You, the gardener, have done everything to allow the flowers to bloom. Once the flowers have grown, you admire their beauty from a distance. You know you still have a role in their life as they still need season-long care, but
you know the key is to not overdo it. If you do, the plants may perish. Now imagine you’re a parent. Like the gardener, parents must feed their children and provide the right type of foundation for them to flourish. Parents face a fine line between teaching and brainwashing. Some parents raise children in their image, hoping they will become just like them. They’re not always raising them to become independent. Parents may build them in a way they always wanted to be brought up. They’re raising them to compensate for how their parents fell short. In turn, they may be forgetting that their own children have feelings and thoughts of their own. Much that gets put in their heads is not thought out, like what to believe, what to eat or what culture they should embrace. Compared to the gardener, these parents are more restrictive. The gardener allows plants to grow unimpeded. When children are born, religion typically becomes a big part of their lives. They’re raised thinking there is only one way to worship. When children learn about other religions, their parents may imply that their God overpowers the others. While many parents don’t let children express interest in other religions, I be-
Opinion
lieve that they should be allowed to express such interest. Parents should not be afraid of teaching their children about other religions. If they teach them what each religion practices, they will grow up to become more understanding of others. What parents overlook is that their children are born through them. They may be tiny and dependent on you, but they are learning how to think for themselves. Like adults, children have feelings, ideas and emotions that can be dismissed. They’re often dismissed because the
Chaos and Contradiction
Oct. 5, 2018
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parent thinks children don’t know any better. If parents took the time to listen and understand, children would grow up to be more confident in themselves. If parents would stop giving everything they never had and give children what they need or what they love, it would give them more creative freedom to grow. For example, food is an essential part of life. It is meant to be enjoyed. With that said, we should let the little people eat what they want. If children want to eat chips for dinner, and parents disagree, they can compromise. They can eat chips as long as they eat their broccoli, pasta and an apple. It makes both children and parents happy. It’s a win-win situation. Parenting would be more exciting if parents worked with their children as if they were a part of a team. They could ask what children want and respect them as individuals while setting healthy boundaries and rules. In a relationship, we compromise to make sure the other person is happy. The same should be done with children. We should compromise to make them happy. We should let our children bloom like flowers.
By Arrak Hutcherson
Page 7
News Flowers
construction activity related to the new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. “We had to give it up,” said Humanities Department Secretary Mary Kearny. “Forest Park has become kind of a barren place. I hope they have a plan to remedy that.” Veverka is aware that Forest Park has
from page 1 been more colorful in the past. But he said this has been a bad year for plants; bulbs have been in short supply; and it takes time for native plants to establish themselves. “What people have to understand is that this is nature,” Veverka said. “It doesn’t just grow overnight.”
Photo by Timothy Bold
People board a Metro bus at the Forest Park stop on Oakland Avenue.
U-Passes
Photo by Chris Cunningham
Faculty and staff tend to a butterfly garden outside A Tower in the summer of 2015.The space is now a construction site.
for Metro. “It gives students and faculty a great way to get to school easily and efficiently and have access to a transportation system that they can use to go to destinations across the region.” STLCC created its U-Pass program in 2015. That fall, Forest Park heavily promoted it, posting signs around campus at the beginning of the semester. Some 1,677 students out of 5,254 enrolled participated (about 32 percent). Since that time, participation has dropped. In the fall of 2016, 1,448 out of 5,440 students participated (about 27 percent). In the fall of 2017, 1,099 out of 5,430
from page 1 students participated (20 percent). Officials still display signs at the beginning of each semester, reminding students to get U-Passes, Primous said. Information also is posted on the STLCC website and on Blackboard. “I go and talk to instructors and try to get them to put it in their syllabi or mention it in class at the beginning of the semester,” Primous said. Vallely didn’t immediately have figures on U-Pass participation rates at other colleges and universities in St. Louis. About 115,000 students and faculty participate in the entire metro area.
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