Moving&shaking

Omnipotent Orion

The celestial constellation Orion is known as “The Hunter.” Hence, it could be argued that Chico State University’s student newspaper is especially aptly named, snaring award after award whenever it competes against other college papers. The Orion submitted three of its issues from 2001, which bagged the paper the first-place prize for general excellence awarded by the National Newspaper Association. It’s the second time in three years The Orion has been so honored. To top it off, the paper won firsts for general excellence and for design excellence at the Management Seminar for College Newspaper Editors in Athens, Ga.

They’re so professional, they probably wouldn’t quote from a press release, as I’m about to do.

Adviser Dave Waddell called the NNA win “quite an honor,” while incoming Managing Editor Jen Cooper said it was “quality” that pushed The Orion ahead of second- and third-place finishers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oregon at Eugene. “We were competing against schools that publish daily with bigger staffs and bigger circulations,” she stated in the aforementioned press release.

Press release quotes part deux

Since it was held smack in the middle of our Wednesday morning deadline, I wasn’t able to make it to the unveiling of the new Center for Information Technology at 422-A Otterson Drive. (Maybe if there had been a faster route, say, a bridge, I could have zipped there and back in time, but voters in June 2002 squashed the $2.7 million, bridge-building Measure A, so blame them.)

But it sounds really high-tech, and I hope to check it out someday. Butte College and the Private Industry Council are partners in the center, which offers a chance to earn certificates in the IT field—CompTIA A+ certification, to be exact. There are four computer labs with as many as 24 computer stations in each. This fall, 14 classes will be taught there by two full-time instructors and three part-timers.

“Today, we’re proud to be a regional academy for Cisco Systems and offer Cisco Certified Network Associate certificates,” Butte College President Sandy Acebo stated in a press release. “We will continue to provide the technology training students need to compete for jobs.”

Man of many hats

What a difference three months make. In May, when we printed Goin’ Chico, the special pull-out section included in the Aug. 15 issue of the Chico News & Review, Professor Dennis Rothermel had just been elected to serve as chairperson of Chico State’s Academic Senate. I wrote a nifty little profile of him, along with a few other “big names” on campus.

Then the fellow goes and gets named interim vice provost for academic affairs. Doh! He called to tell us a couple of months ago but, alas, the presses had run, and now Rothermel has a “Dewey Defeats Truman"-style story he can put in his road-not-traveled scrapbook.

Rothermel, who had been chair of the Philosophy Department, takes over for a two-year appointment as vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. The previous position-holder, Byron Jackson, decided to return to teaching political science.

While the Academic Senate will need to vote in a new chair, Professor Jim Postma had been elected vice chair and gets to wear Rothermel’s crown until then.