LBCC: Students Play Ping Pong!

Students at Linn-Benton Community College engaged in friendly competition playing Ping Pong! The table, usually found in the Hot Shot Cafe, was moved out to the courtyard on April 16. Students were able to enjoy a sunny spring day and have some fun at the same time.

Jeremy Goethals and Mustafa Alakramawi "ping" the pong.

Jeremy Goethals awaits the ball with intensity.

With his personal style of holding the paddle, Goethals hits the ball back to Alakramawi.

"Noah" Movie Review

Poster courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Artistic, epic, slightly entertaining, and a bit laughable in places not designed to be funny.

"Noah" isn't a complete waste of time for those seeking a lesson on morals and humanity. Although, Darren Aronofsky's chance to reunite with his leading lady Jennifer Connelly from his acclaimed film "Requiem to a Dream" may have fallen short of any Oscar nods.

He's a director with vision unlike many others to take on this new rendition of a biblical tale. His creativity in story-telling is seen in this film as it was in "Pi" and "Black Swan."

Patrons going to watch "Noah" will notice that there are not three wives of Noah's sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth on the Ark. Be prepared to overlook this detail. The repopulation of Earth after the flood was not the goal of "The Creator" in this film. But instead the punishment for sin.

Movie-goers with an open mind to the message of the story and the dedication of a man and his family to carry it out can still appreciate the film. Self-identified Christian, Carlos Romero, of Corvallis is one of them.

"The message of the weight [Noah] carried was bold. He was able to share his belief and in the end he prevailed, which is great."

The visual effects in the film are impressive. Aronofsky did a great job using imagery and quick snapshots to reference time to tell the story in between scenes. He successfully fit many little details of a lengthy story (nine months in the movie) into 138 minutes.

There are some remarkable scenes of the animals flocking to the Ark. It was obvious that money was well spent to bring realism to dramatic settings. The beginning of the flood scene was a bit over the top but we can't forget where the film was made, in Hollywood.

Much of the movie lacked dialog, so a base-thumping cacophony of sound is used instead. The plethora of wordless music with a nail-biting, symphony feel is effective when it needs to be.

The $125 million spent on the film allowed for several acclaimed lead actors (Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins), but for the combined acting credentials there is little personality.

Some of the scenes seemed lackluster or, on the opposite end, over-acted with the theatrics of enthusiastic stage actors. Having a classical feel for a classic tale was possibly the directive from Aronofsky, but for the quality of talent in the film performances could have been better.

Emma Watson played Ila, Shem's love interest but also orphaned adopted sister, and delivered an unimpressive performance lacking depth and believability. Without being a scene-spoiler, look specifically for a crying bit late in the movie to demonstrate obvious fake tears on her behalf. Hence the laughable part.

For the length of the film it came up short in substance to keep audiences entertained. In this case it could have been shaved down to keep the action rolling rather than dwindling and leading to moments of boredom. At one point, literally, the man in the front row was snoring.

"The movie as a whole is a mixed bag. It's overlong and at times sluggish. The fights and battles, designed to give an epic fantasy feel to the movie, are grave miscalculations," said critic James Berardinelli with ReelViews.

Aronofsky's twist that gave it a modern filmmaker touch and personal interpretation are rock covered angels that fell from the sky. They are stuck Earth-bound and became protectors of man aka Noah. Sound familiar? It should, because they not only looked similar to but also mimicked the story of "Transformers."

Artistically it is a daring and adventurous interpretation.

There was a need to explain certain aspects of the story such as how all the wood is farmed, moved, trimmed and chopped. Or how a massive ark is erected by one man, four youth, and a fragile wife. Or how one family wards off mobs of "sinners" wanting a free-float to salvation. Enter the rock-angel-transformer things.

"I was confused by the 'transformers' made of rock," said movie-goer Morgen Springer of Philomath.

Indeed they are unexpected and a bit unoriginal. However, much of the justification for divine assistance is passed off to these hardened-helpers. The rock-angels also succeed in bringing the beloved Hollywood component of fiery explosions and victorious rescues to an otherwise anticlimactic movie.

"In his flawed, fascinating and altogether extraordinary 'Noah,' this ever-audacious filmmaker has given us a bold and singular vision of Old Testament times — a picture that dares to handle a sacred text not with the clunky messages and stiff pieties we’ve come to expect from so much so-called 'Christian cinema,' but rather with a thrilling sense of personal investment and artistic risk," said Justin Chang Chief Film Critic for Variety.

Worth the watch, just wait until it's on DVD.

-At a Glance-

What: "Noah" movie review
Released: April 2014
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Nick Nolte
Rating: (2.5/5)

Sustainability at Linn-Benton Community College: Green Roof and L.E.E.D. Certified

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Most students who take the elevator in White Oak Hall can only stop at two floors. However, if they have the key to unlock the button to the third floor it will open to a sun-soaked observation room with three walls of glass overlooking a 9,000-square-foot rooftop garden.

The colors of spring paint the roof with orange, red, yellow, and green. Four inches of soil transform the expected concrete dead-zone into a living canopy 50 feet above the ground. Among the strawberries and wildflowers the sound of bees buzzing and birds chirping can be heard.

As the population increases so does the consumption of food, energy, waste, resources, and the need for space. The urge for citizens and organizations to be conscious of their impact on Mother Earth grows more important as we spread to previously untouched territory and use previously plentiful resources.

Albany is home to Linn-Benton Community College. The college received a Silver Certification in energy and environmental design from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2010. LBCC is doing its part to set standards of living that are eco-friendly and environmentally sound.

The Green Building Council has a program for best building strategies and practices for sustainability called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED certification.

To become LEED certified a building must meet a certain number of sustainability points for the design. A "green roof" is one way to add design points. The second of four rankings is Silver, which equals a total of 50-59 points.

In 2008 the sustainability committee at LBCC started planning the project to build a new science building, Madrone Hall. Madrone Hall was built to become LEED certified. The project also included gutting the existing science building, White Oak Hall, and rebuilding it using LEED certification standards.

"We worked with a LEED advisor that told us what we can achieve with what resources," said Stefan Seiter, horticulture instructor at LBCC.

The buildings were designed with input from about 15 faculty at the college with the goal of implementing features to be used as teaching tools.

Horticulture, Agriculture, Biology, Engineering, and Mechatronics all incorporate sustainability in their curriculum. Horticulture students, for example, study crop and soil science with an emphasis on sustainable production and ecologically sound resource management.

An added feature to the White Oak Hall remodel was the "green roof" maintained by horticulture and agriculture students.

Photo by Allison Lamplugh

Plant communities were placed on the roof to be maintained while other areas were left untouched to observe what natural ecology would take over. The "green roof" also provides green space for winged wildlife.

Other motivation for the project was economics. Kevin Lacey, associate director of facilities, noted that the college wanted to do their part to set an example and create a "supply and demand" ripple effect for local sustainability projects.

"We think it's important for us to do what we can to not only utilize the solar panels but to help drive the market price down."

The most prominent solar panels on campus can be found in the courtyard on top of the gazebo by the water fountain. At first glance the gazebo appears to be an ultra-modern metal marquee with an artistic flare. Those who stand underneath can gaze into the sky through transparent panels as they absorb solar rays.

The school chose to put the gazebo in a highly visible location. It holds 60 solar panels and cost $93,000 to build. However, $13,000 was collected back in tax credits.

The gazebo panels are tilted in order to capture sunlight at all times of the day. The solar energy collected is fed into inverters in White Oak Hall and converted into AC power, which is the same kind of power used in homes.

The converted energy is then fed into the main power grid at the school and divided evenly among power usage on campus. The power that runs into the inverters is subtracted from the college's monthly Pacific Power bill saving resources and money.

Photo by Allison Lamplugh

The smaller set of solar panels on campus can be found on the south-side windows of the Silver Certified Madrone Hall. They camouflage well and appear to be a fine, see-through screen.

"It was a dual purpose. The glass was south facing so it would have been hard to cool the building so it was to maintain a striking facade and use the energy," said Seiter.

The solar panels at Madrone Hall also feed energy to the inverters at White Oak Hall to be distributed throughout campus.

The energy created is measured in kilowatt hours. One kilowatt hour equals 10 cents off the power usage bill. To date, the two inverters funneling the solar power have tracked 34,000 kilowatt hours of energy generated. That's a $3,400 savings thus far.

"We built this knowing it wouldn't pay off for 25 or 30 years," said Greg Mulder, physical science instructor.

Regardless of immediate payoff the school saw the project as a priority.

There were a lot of different pieces that came together to fund the project. Some money was from the 2009 stimulus package, some from government grants, and some was allocated in the budget.

"I think for a community college this science building project was progressive. It was quite a big deal. We were certainly using it to promote the college as well when we want to show off a little bit," said Seiter.

During the construction of the new science buildings all possible old materials were recycled and reused into the new build. The old concrete from White Oak Hall, for example, was crushed and reused in the base of Madrone Hall.

"They recycled everything, there was really very little waste," said Lacey.

As the man-made world expands around us, the bold undertaking of LBCC set a tone for local residents and businesses alike in the importance of every day being Earth Day.


-At a Glance-

What: Sustainability at LBCC
Method: Solar energy and "green roof"
Certified: U.S. Green Building Council 2010
Get Involved: LBCC Hort Club
Contact: Stefan Seiter, (541) 917-4765 or seiters@linnbenton.edu


Interesting Extras!

• The United States is the third largest country with 322 million people and an estimated 0.7 percent increase in the population each year.
• The mid-sized state of Oregon has just under four million residents.
• According to data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau and National Geographic Society's Green Guide whom combined their efforts to rank the top 50 "greenest cities" in America, Oregon holds the first and fifth ranked cities: Portland and Eugene respectively.

LBCC: Student Plays Tennis on Campus

Student Ginny Wobbe plays tennis at the courts on the Linn-Benton Community College campus. Using her two-hour break between classes on April 9, she had no opponent. With a racket, a tennis ball and the intention of a good time she enjoyed a sunny spring day.

The Cost to Click: $89,000

Expectations were high for the launch of the new LBCC website Fall term 2014, but murmurs on campus spread and excitement turned into questioning the $89,000 purchase.

Months of planning went into organizing focus groups concerning the elements of the site. From Aug. 2012 to April 2013 three separate groups were formed to discuss the old website layout versus the new layout.

About 150 people in total were involved in the discussions.

"We took information received [in the focus groups] and digested it and put it out on the web," said Dale Stowell the Executive Director of Institutional Advancement at the college.

Development of the new site didn't take place overnight. There was a soft launch in Fall 2013 to gather feedback from users. Suggestions and comments came in from about 200 people.

"They were all very helpful and helped us make good decisions on what to do next."

The series of focus groups featured local high school students, current students, and faculty. All groups were conducted separate from one another.

Groups were given the old site and new site and asked to respond to a series of questions.

"It's Google analytics. It was a measure to see how people behaved on each page."

Participants were asked to give suggestions as to what "quick links" and information they expected during navigation. Based off the suggestions the "quick links" were added to the homepage.

The first group were volunteers from Albany High School. They were asked what links they would look for, if those links were easy to find, and if the website was competitively attractive compared to other colleges they may have shopped.

The second group were faculty. They were asked to give feedback on building a better, more intuitive and user friendly web service. Moodle, the online student portal, was included in their discussion.

Last were current students at LBCC. They were asked if the website reflected the school, what kind of key-words they would look for on the site, and the ease of use.

William Allison was a LBCC student among the focus group.

"They asked what words would make you want to come to the school, that's how they came up with [the word] 'inspired.'"

That catch phrase can now be seen heavily on the site and on brochures throughout campus.

Current student and Open Source club member Russell Ruby is not a fan of the over-use of the word.

"The word 'inspire' on every page over and over almost makes it meaningless."

According to Allison the consensus among focus group members were they did not like the old site. They agreed it was text heavy and not visually pleasing with photos. He felt a focus during the group was how to design the site to influence potential students to enroll at LBCC.

According to Stowell feedback regarding the lack of visually pleasing material resulted in hiring a photographer for a two-day shoot. They got 180 photographs of student life to be used on the site.

But not all of the suggestions Allison recalled were effectively put in place from a current student's point of view.

"One thing I mentioned in the focus group was a link for The Commuter on the homepage. There is a link to The Commuter now but it takes three clicks to get there."

Some students agree the site is more user friendly to potential students verses enrolled students. Many links take multiple clicks to get to a place that students would be interested in.

"I put my search into Google and it shows me where to go faster than using the website," said Ruby.

Future students may want to explore the site but current students want to get information quickly. Students expect to see what is important to them in the most prominent places.

An example given by Stephen Gibble, student and Open Source club member, is the placement of Tweets. He feels campus news should be quickly visible to students but instead Tweets are at the very bottom of the page.

Gibble has some other gripes with the site.

"At first glance it looks very nice. The beef I have with it is for current LB students. On the old website the information density was high [but] with the new one is mostly pictures with happy people."

With that being said, a strong point of the site Gibble feels is its mobile friendliness. The new column design works well on phones because it collapses down so its usable on the small screen. This was a big improvement from the old site.

"I really don't have any complaints about the mobile version."

One major improvement to the site was to in fact make it mobile friendly. The old site was so outdated that its compatibility with cell phones was non-existent. 

"The company we work with does technical design suggested to make it mobile intuitive," said Stowell.

The site is still a work in progress.

As students may recall, when it was first launched there were hundreds of broken links. After months of fixing them they are mostly gone due to student feedback and running broken link reports.

There are two groups that meet biweekly to continue improvements on the site. One is a web implementation group that works on use and content and the other a web strategy group that works to develop and evolve the site.

Suggestions for continued improvement can be sent to web-suggestions@linnbenton.edu.