Students party hard at Activities Center

At Issue: The Student Activites Center is a breeding ground for drugs and alcohol; with students breaking the code of conduct.

Loud music can be heard everywhere and people are break dancing on the stage. Almost everyone is using profanity and men and women utter sexist and racist slurs to attract the attention of the opposite sex.

There is a faint smell of marijuana in the air and a man sits at a card table and rolls a blunt in plain view. A couple stands in a corner kissing and rubbing up againt each other as others walk by and stare.

Two younger males sit at a table and pass around Tropicana juice bottles filled with alcohol so their buddies can take a sip and smell its contents.

No, we’re not sitting in a night club in L.A. The place is EC’s Student Activities Center on a recent Monday at 2:30 p.m.

In the Activities Center there are more than 10 signs which state the Standards of Student Conduct.

We can say that in the hour we spent in the Activities Center every one of the conduct rules were broken. However, we didn’t see any students with a weapon.

The Student Activities Center is not a place for students to do whatever they please. There is a time and place to drink and be disruptive, but this is an educational environment, not a night club.

If students think they have to drink and do drugs at school and can’t wait for the right time, maybe they should consider visiting the Health Center for help with their addictions.

Help given to those during the first year

At Issue: The First Year Experience program offers guidiance and assistance during a student’s first year of college.

Entering college, most students are afraid and unsure of what classes to take, but their confusion can come to an end once they join the First Year Experience program.

The program offers students who are attending their first year of college guidance in their academic, personal and future career plans.

Many students in the program were recruited from high school in an attempt to make the transition into college as easy as possible.

Students meet with counselors for assistance in any way needed. This allows students to feel they have someone to talk to that will look out for their best interests.

The First Year Experience program groups students who need to complete the same requirements, for example, math and English, in the same classes, so that they will have each other to study with and see familiar faces in class.

This program helps students transition smoothly into the college life. College is a scary concept for many at first, because unlike high school, college is not mandatory.

The campus is bigger than what most people are used to and the choices for classes leading to future careers are too numerous to count. Some students, without assistance, feel lost and confused.

The First Year Experience offers these students the help they need to adjust to being in college, as well as keeps them on the right track to success.