Daily Archives: May 1, 2017

GRCC In the News, 5-1-17

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Graduation ceremonies this weekend for GVSU and GRCC

April 28, 2017; WZZM

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. – Graduates across the country are closing the book on their college careers as commencement ceremonies take place.

… Friday was also the last commencement ceremony for retiring Grand Rapids Community College President Dr. Steven C. Ender.

Community partners fill need for nursing assistants

April 28, 2017; Grand Rapids Business Journal

Facing a shortage of certified nursing assistants, West Michigan health care leaders asked Grand Rapids Community College to start a CNA training program.

Change Ups: Adtegrity to relocate

April 28, 2017; Grand Rapids Business Journal

… EDUCATION

… Secchia Institute for Culinary Arts student Tammy Vander Werf received Grand Rapids Community College’s Arthur Andrews Award, which goes to the Delta Pi Alpha student with the highest cumulative GPA and the greatest number of honor points. Vander Werf will receive a culinary arts degree with an emphasis in baking and pastry arts.

In Constant Growth: ACT Apprentice Chris Overway

April 28, 2017; therapidian.org

“I will continue doing art and creating.”

… After the program, Chris (Overway) will be graduating and moving onto Grand Rapids Community College, where he wants to continue doing art. Ultimately Chris says he wants to sell his art and do it professionally, because it is his ultimate passion. Regardless of the circumstances, Chris will find inspiration and find a way to create.

Makenna Pronk a reliable source of goals for Zion Christian soccer team

April 28, 2017; MLive

BYRON CENTER — When the Zion Christian girls soccer team puts a goal in the back of an opponent’s net, chances are good senior Makenna Pronk has been a part of the play.

… After high school, Pronk plans to attend Grand Rapids Community College.

Jazz at GRandJazzFest This Summer Will be Fantastic and Free

April 28, 2017; 100.5 FM

It’s one of the most anticipated festivals in Grand Rapids. GRandJazzFest, August 19 and 20 is back for its sixth year at Rosa Parks Circle, in downtown Grand Rapids.

… It’s free thanks to presenting sponsor DTE Energy Foundation, the City of Grand Rapids, Gilmore Collection, GR and Jazz, IntentPR, Corporate Live, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Amway Hotel Corporation, Experience Grand Rapids, Icon Sign, Matt Huizenga Videography, Meijer, MoxieMen, Steelcase, Configura, Fancy Faces, Grand Rapids Community College, Hilger Hammond, Kitchen 67, Levens Strand & Glover, Rick and Mary Stevens, Rockford Construction, Swift Printing, and other sponsoring organizations and individuals.

 

Blackboard upgrade on May 4

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Technology notification:

On May 4th, from 6-9 a.m., Blackboard Learn will be upgraded to Learn 9.1 Q4 2016 Cumulative Update 1. During the scheduled maintenance, Blackboard will be unavailable. Please review your courses and organizations in Blackboard prior to the upgrade to ensure everything is working as expected and you are familiar with the changes. You can evaluate the Blackboard updates in our test environment at https://bbtst.grcc.edu (on campus only). The test environment is a copy of the production environment as of February 1.

With this upgrade, the new Blackboard Learn 2016 theme will be applied, so it will look slightly different. The new theme improves the experience for mobile users. Additionally, this theme was designed with WCAG 2.0 principles in mind and follows accessibility guidelines for structure, color contrast, and navigation. Please note, modifying course themes and some branding configuration settings are no longer supported. The course themes option will be replaced with the Blackboard delivered theme, which is a more consistent, mobile-friendly and accessible interface. In addition, we added a “Mobile” tab that contains a different module layout that we believe better aligns with the mobile experience (i.e. My Course List module resides on the left, so it is the first module presented to a mobile device). More information on this can be found in the announcement section located on the login page. The Mobile tab will not be pushed to production and is only used for demonstration purposes. We welcome your feedback on adjusting the layout of various modules to improve the overall mobile experience.

Listed below are a couple of the feature enhancements and quality improvements in this release. For a full list of updates, please refer to the Blackboard release notes, which can be found at https://en-us.help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/Hosting/Release_Notes/Release_Notes_All_91_Releases/Release_Notes_9.1_2016_Q4.

  • Improved mobile experience and accessibility
  • Ability to drag and drop files
  • Submission receipts
  • Reminders
  • Dropbox integration

If you have questions or concerns, please contact IT Customer Support at 234-HELP or ITSupport@grcc.edu. If you have questions about how to use the new features, contact DLIT at 234-3205 or DLIT@grcc.edu.

Summer construction season starts today

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Beginning on Monday, May 1, contractors will be on site to begin a variety of summer projects:

  • Concrete repair work will occur in specific areas on the Commons on Monday and Tuesday.  There will be some noise as they demolish the failing concrete.  They will them pour replacement, which will be roped off for several days. Pedestrian traffic will not be impacted.  However, vehicular delivery services will not be able to travel the Commons next week.
  • Phase 2 of the Bostwick ramp repair work will also begin.  This will include work on lower levels throughout the ramp.  If you park in that ramp, please note that areas of the ramp will be closed to allow for this work.

Music Department is on the move!

  • They’re going home!  We will be moving the Music Department offices from the Data Center back to the Music Building on Monday, May 1.  Throughout the week, we’ll be moving equipment and instruments from various campus buildings back to the Music building.  The professional piano movers will be on site on Wednesday and Thursday, May 3 and 4.

Other summer moves:

  • Due to Bostwick ramp work, the DSS Testing center will be moving on May 3 to the Science Building for the summer.
  • Counseling and Advising services will be moving to the Data Center.  Watch for more information next week!