Raider Salute from Purchasing for “Build With Us” Volunteers

The Purchasing Department extends a HUGE THANK YOU and Raider Salute to the following individuals for your invaluable assistance the “Build with Us” event on August 23rd:

• Abbot Kastanek – Facilities
• Joe Milito – Facilities
• Dorothy Paradis – Facilities
• Dewayn Faber – Facilities
• Jeffery Vanderveen – Information Technology
• Danelle Sedore – ePrint
• Lorena Aguayo-Marquez – Workforce Training
• David Murray – Communications
• Jared Anderson – Online Store

Our partnership with the City of Grand Rapids for supplier and Micro-Local Business Enterprise recruitment is an important one for our community. We could not do this work as effectively without all of you.

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GRCC seismometer records three MORE earthquakes this August

The earthquakes keep rolling in to GRMI!

August continues to be a seismically busy month. GRMI picked up 3 notable earthquakes in the past week. You may not have heard about the magnitude 8.2 earthquake near Fiji on August 19^th. That is because, at a depth of 563 km, this “deep-focus” earthquake was too distant to cause any damage on the surface of the Earth.

You may have heard of the widely felt  magnitude 7.3 earthquake that shook Venezuela on August 21^st. Large earthquakes are relatively rare in this region and this is the largest historic quake within 250 km of the surface in the last century. Fortunately, this earthquake was also relatively deep (123 km) and caused little damage.

Finally, on the morning of August 22^nd, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake was generated on the seafloor off the Oregon coast. The earthquake appears to have been generated where the tiny Juan De Fuca tectonic plate (which is being subducted or shoved under the North American continent) is sliding past the huge Pacific plate. Despite being just 10 km below the sea floor, there was no tsunami generated.

If you are interested in earthquakes recorded by the GRCC seismometer, you can find them on the MIQuakes website.

 

GRMI seismogram of the M8.2 Fiji earthquake on August 19^th (red arrow):

GRMI seismogram of the M7.3 earthquake in Venezuela (red arrow) and the M6.2 Oregon earthquake (blue arrow):

GRCC In The News, 8-23-18

GRCC: safety first, as volleyball team prepared to head home from Hawaii
8/22/18 FOX 17
ALLENDALE, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Community College volleyball team is scheduled to depart Hawaii on Thursday night, hours before Hurricane Lane is forecasted to pay a rather rude visit to the island state.

MSU home run king Mike Eddington takes over at Grand Rapids JC
8/22/18 MLive
Mike Eddington, a former Grand Rapids Community College baseball player who went on to break Michigan State University’s home run record, has been hired to coach the GRCC baseball team.

Grand Rapids plans career academies for Ottawa Hills High
8/22/18 MLive
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids Public Schools plans to offer a half-dozen career academies in fields in demand in West Michigan at Ottawa Hills High Schools.
… The district already has an Early/Middle College program at Ottawa Hills High, located at 2055 Rosewood Ave. SE, that launched last year. After a five years, students can earn a diploma and an associate of arts degree from Grand Rapids Community College.

OpenStax Partner Schools Expected to Save Students $17.4M on Textbooks
8/23/18 whattheythink.com (marketing website)
Houston, Tex. — Eleven U.S. colleges and universities that partnered with Rice University-based nonprofit publisher OpenStax last summer to encourage the use of freely available learning materials expect to save their students nearly $17.4 million on textbook and materials costs in the coming academic year. Most of the projected savings — $10.7 million — are a result of initiatives implemented during OpenStax’s institutional partnership program.
… Current partner schools from previous years are Alamo Colleges (Texas); Auburn University (Alabama); BCcampus (British Columbia); Central New Mexico Community College; College of the Canyons (California); Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan); Lansing Community College (Michigan); Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona); Northern Essex Community College (Massachusetts); The Ohio State University; Pasadena City College (California); Salt Lake Community College (Utah); South Florida State College; Tarrant County College (Texas); Tulsa Community College (Oklahoma); UMass Amherst; University of Arizona; University of Connecticut; University of Idaho; University of Georgia; University of Oklahoma; University System of Georgia; University of Texas, San Antonio; Utah State University; Virginia Tech; and Washington State University.

Winning the right to be heard: Melvin Thomas poised to engage youth in urban classrooms
8/23/18 rapidgrowthmedia.com
Melvin Thomas didn’t know it at the time, but his career serving youth began at a funeral: the service of his cousin who was murdered at the age of 16 in Thomas’ home town of Benton Harbor. Thomas was just 21 when he attended, and is still affected by the emotional experience of that day.
… Thomas was attending Grand Rapids Community College at the time, he was struggling with daily life and his classes.

New Electronic Vehicle Charging Stations on Campus

Two new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations are available for staff, student, and visitor use within the Bostwick Parking Ramp.  The staff charging station is located near the staff parking entrance off Fountain NE.  The student/visitor station is located near the Bostwick NE ramp entrance.  Each station is able to accommodate two cars at a time on adjacent parking spaces.  Only electric vehicles that are using the charging stations may park in the designated spots which are painted green.

The EV charging stations are fully managed by ChargePoint, one of the world’s largest EV charging networks. Support is available 24/7 from ChargePoint either through the app or the support number listed on the station’s interactive screen. For additional information, and to use the station, drivers simply download the ChargePoint mobile app and sign up for a free ChargePoint account. Full details on how to access EV charging stations through ChargePoint can be found at the ChargePoint website including training videos and FAQs.  (www.chargepoint.com)

The cost to use an EV station is 15 cents per kilowatt hour. In order to use a station, you must have a ChargePoint account. In addition to station usage fee, users must have a valid parking permit or pay the designated parking fees. To ensure that access is available to as many users as possible, vehicles using the charging stations must be moved to a regular parking space within the Bostwick Ramp or exit the ramp when fully charged. When the vehicle is charged, ChargePoint will send the user a notification that the car is charged, and that they have 30 minutes to move the vehicle. After the 30 minute time period the user will be charged $1.00 per hour.

If the EV charging stations in the Bostwick Parking Ramp are highly utilized, more stations will be considered in the future.

More information can be found on our website at: https://www.grcc.edu/facilities/evchargingstations

TechSmith Relay Replacement

As of January 1, 2019, TechSmith Relay Recorder and Relay Server (https://relay.grcc.edu) will no longer be available as their parent company, TechSmith, has discontinued both products.

If you have used TechSmith Relay Recorder in the past to create videos, SnagIt and Camtasia are more robust versions of TechSmith Relay Recorder that allow you to screen capture and edit your videos. Both SnagIt and Camtasia are available for download in the Software Center. If you have uploaded videos to RaiderCast using the TechSmith Relay Recorder in the past, those videos will still be available and you can upload to that location through December 31, 2018.

Starting January 1, 2019, videos can no longer be uploaded to RaiderCast. They can be uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube using the Share option in SnagIt and Camtasia. The video captioning process will stay the same. As a reminder, per the audiovisual captioning policy, compliance with federal law requires captioning of all created, purchased or continually used audiovisual media production shown at GRCC.

Tutorials for SnagIt and Camtasia are listed below.

SnagIt: https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-snagit.html

Camtasia: https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia.html

If you need assistance with these products, please drop-in to the Distance Learning office at 316 Main, alternatively, you can email them at dlit@grcc.edu or call 234-3205.

Blackboard Instant Messenger Going Away

Blackboard Instant Messenger will no longer be available for use as of January 1, 2019. This solution has been discontinued by its parent company, Blackboard.

Information Technology understands that many faculty and staff rely on the use of an instant messaging tool to communicate with students. With this, GRCC will officially support the use of Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts allows you to send chat messages, make video calls, and screen share. Whether you are new to Google Hangouts or are currently using it or have used it in the past, more information can be found at https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/hangouts/#!/. This resource includes information on all three platforms of Google Hangouts including Google Chat and Google Meet.

We encourage faculty and staff members to begin using Google Hangouts prior to January 1, 2019, to familiarize themselves with the product suite and to determine how to best use the new tool in your day-to-day operations. Faculty and staff can use the Hangouts suite by visiting https://hangouts.google.com and entering their GRCC email address and GRCC network password.  To switch between Hangouts, Chat, and Meet simply click the Google Apps menu in the upper right corner of your browser.

If you need assistance with these products, please drop-in to the Distance Learning office at 316 Main, alternatively, you can email them at dlit@grcc.edu or call 234-3205.