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My Educational Philosophy

by Dr. Pelham K. Mead III

My Educational Philosophy

By Dr. Pelham K. Mead III

Introduction

I have always believed in Dewey’s position on Education on “pragmatism” since I am a pragmatist. I believe in God and that he/she has a purpose for our lives. Of the idea of God, Dewey said, “it denotes the unity of all ideal ends arousing us to desire and actions.

I agree with Dewey that education and learning are social and interactive processes. Education or schooling is where a child spends 6 ½ hours a day. It becomes their social focus. Thus as Dewey has stated, the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. It is also my firm belief that students do well in an environment in which they are allowed to experience things and interact with the curriculum. This is another tenet of Dewey, and still today we are striving to allow students to actively engage in their learning in lecture halls in colleges, and in classrooms in elementary and secondary education.

Being a pragmatic teacher I believe programs that arise in education can be worked out. I also believe in Existentialism in which students learn in their own way. I believe students to be unique and no set curriculum will work unless it allows for their individualism to exist. Dewey believed, as do I that a teacher needs to model the right way of doing things and to prepare a student not only for the subject being taught, but also for the future where their values will continue.

Today, I received an e-mail letter from a student I had in my physical education classes and my Boys Gymnastics team over 40 years ago, thanking me for all I did for him. When I first saw the name, I had to think, “Who was this student.” Then it occurred to me it was one of my smallest gymnasts that I always gave encouragement to, that one day he would grow taller and become stronger. He never forgot that modeling, and even though it took 40 years, he finally thanked me. Thanks were not need because I was doing my job and then some. I was being not just a teacher or a leader but and adult role model, something which had stuck with this student even though after he graduated from high school I never saw him again.

Satisfactions and Challenges of the Teaching Profession

The satisfactions of teaching are when like the student just mentioned come back or contacts me and says thanks. I use to always get excited when my students who had graduated from high school would come back and tell me how they were doing in college and how gymnastics or physical education in knowing me made a difference for them. I recruited a great deal of students to the profession of teaching even at the young ages of 14, 15, and 16. When I saw that special talent in working unselfishly with others I knew this student would one day make a great teacher. I gave them opportunities to teach by becoming what I called Junior Instructors and when they went off to high school from Junior High, I asked them to come back and help me after-school in the gymnastic practice sessions. Soon after a few years I had over 30 Junior Instructors helping my gigantic team of 110 students. Out of the 30 students 19 went on to become teachers, which is quite a record. Many became Gymnastic Captains at their College teams. Three such students became Captains of the Springfield College Gymnastic Team, my Alma Mata. These successes were very satisfying rewards for me in my career in teaching.

There are always cons in all professions, however despite the politics of my school where I taught for 31 years, I managed to survive. We had three major strike threats in which our Union tried to force the Board of Education to give us at least a 3% pay increase every four years that was below the cost of living.

Student diversity seems to be a key word in today’s education, however when I started teaching I saw no diversity in having as many black students on my gymnastic team as white students. I did not see the difference between special students and normal students. I remember going out of my way to encourage a tall black student who was considered a special education student to succeed in gymnastics when his friends all wanted him to play Basketball. My support of this student paid off because he actually became a NY State Gymnastic finalist. After high school graduation he attended the local community college and started a Gymnastic Club there. He went on to transfer after two years to SUNY Cortland University where he became a star male gymnast. Even though he was a special education student with a reading level of second grade in eighth grade and being a black American in a generally “white” sport, he achieved. My major philosophy in my Gymnastic Exhibition Team was that everyone that kept up their attendance and show motivation and effort would participate in some way in all of our traveling gymnastic shows at other elementary and secondary schools in our district and later on in other school districts. If they weren’t good at tumbling, I put them in the parachute event. If they are too weak for the parallel bars or uneven parallel bars I made them a vaulter so they could be a part of the “Elephant Vaulting” event. (Vaulting over parallel bars with a mat laid over the rails using a springboard or trampolette, with me on the other side catching many of them as they cleared the mat.)

It never occurred to me that there was diversity of religious backgrounds, or ethnic backgrounds until my school had an International Day and I noticed that all of my students came from 21 different countries and spoke 21 different languages at home. In the 1960’s and the 1970’s my school district was 60% Jewish students from Spring Valley, Monsey, Pomona, and Montebello, NY. Monsey itself was a self-sufficient Ultra-orthodox Jewish community where Jewish people owned all of the stores, and all the schools were Jewish Yeshivas. By the 1980’s the population changed and Haitian students became the next population to move into Spring Valley bringing the overall Haitian student population to almost 40% by the end of the decade. Much of the liberal and conservative Jewish population moved out of Spring Valley to New City. Out diversity increased more and more each decade with an influx of different nationalities moving out of New York City to the suburbs where the schools were better than the city and housing was available for a cheaper amount. By the 1990’s the Indian population and the Russian population had become larger along with Chinese families. Our diversity became out strength as we struggled to learn from one another and to identify with the ethnic cultures that had moved into our community over 30+ years. Diversity was the keyword then as it is now and it meant treating students equally and fairly with sensitivity for their religious and ethnic cultural values.

Scope of my Teaching Profession

My first teaching experience other than my field-teaching placement was as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Biology, Botany, and Anatomy at Springfield College. In my senior year I was fortunate to get a part-time position as a Teaching Fellow in Botany when another Teaching Fellow left suddenly. Because of this opportunity I stayed on as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Botany and Zoology the next year. I was in charge of four Biology labs a week and had to teach once a month using 35 mm slides to a lecture hall of 350 Freshman Students.

After a summer in Los Angeles as Assistant Director of the LA Board of Education “School Camp” experience at Point Fermin Park, I concluded my graduate field experience, and headed back to New York. I started teaching Physical Education and Health that fall of 1967 and Coach of Cross Country, Track and Field, and Assistant to the Wrestling coach. After one year of teaching Physical Education I realized the school was in the “ice age” when it came to Gymnastics. The Men’s Physical Education staff had no clue what gymnastics really was as a sport. They called rope climbing and obstacle course-gymnastics. I had to demonstrate everything and strive to up grade the equipment, which was 20 years out of date. After I developed an intramural gymnastics program for the boys that were too small to play basketball in the winter, I inherited the girls gymnastic program the second year of my job when the girl’s coach left for a college job. I knew nothing about Girls gymnastics since in the 1960’s and early 1970’s before the Federal Title 9 rule came into effect demanding equal programs and equipment for girls. I went to gymnastic clinics every year. I bought records for Floor Exercise, and read books on Girls Gymnastics. I later became a Nationally Certified USGF Safety Gymnastic Instructor and Coach. I went on to pass the Men’s USGF National Judging test and was certified as a Men’s Gymnastic Judge for ten years.

My teaching experience was diverse in public school with 31 years at a Physical Education Teacher, Health Education teacher, Darkroom Photography Teacher, and Dean of Students for grades 7,8, and 9, called Junior High in New York State. I coached practically every sport that existed including Girls Softball but no Field Hockey. I coached French Foil fencing on a club basis and Lacrosse that was a new and upcoming sport at the time. I was supposed to be the Swimming Coach but the pool in my building was turned down by public vote and we never got a swimming pool and instead had to rent a college pool for the team to practice.

As I was retiring in 1998 the junior high system of education was being replaced by a Middle School concept of grades 6,7, and 8, leaving the 9^th grade in High school where it belonged. In the 1970’s Physical Education which used to teach separate gender classes. Getting my Doctoral degree in 1992 opened a future door for me since I knew that I could not be a Physical Education Teacher forever and keep the same stamina and energy I had when I was younger. When I retired in 1998, it was just the beginning of another wonderful career in higher education where my Doctoral degree opened the doors to college and university jobs. My Dewey and James philosophy had stayed with me all my career and always made me reach out to the underdog, the underserved, the small the large, the slow and the fast students that came across my career path.

Responsibilities and Requirements of Teaching

My legal responsibilities as a teacher were “en loco parente,” in Latin, in place of the parent. It was my responsibility to prepare my lesson plans in advance, both for Health Education and Physical Education and have it approved by the Department Chairman. It was my job as a teacher and leader to present a moral presence to my students and to show them by my actions that act of kindness, good sportsmanship, good ethical values and fairness in judgment mattered both in school and in society.

My skills as a gymnast in high school and college gave me an edge in teaching Physical Education since most Physical Education teachers were poorly educated in Gymnastics and other minor sports like Fencing, Lacrosse, and Judo. These specialty areas made the difference between an average Physical Education teacher and a great Physical Education teacher. I found that in my first ten years on the job, I not only had to introduce real gymnastics to my colleagues, but I had to also educate other Physical Education teachers at the two high schools, the other two Junior High schools and the 13 elementary Schools. This opportunity came around once a year when we started off the year with the first Day of the year with the Superintendent’s Conference. I contacted several Olympic Gymnasts and one National Trampoline Expert that were employed by the Nissen Corp. and American Gymnastic Equipment Corp. as field reps and good will ambassadors. They came and put on demonstrations and clinics on three different occasions that sparked a lot of interest on the elementary school level in proper gymnastic progressions.

In 1975 I was asked to serve on the District-wide Curriculum Committee for Physical Education. I had the opportunity to write the complete Gymnastic Curriculum from K-12 grade with the skills progressions that were appropriate for each age and skill level. Later on in 1982, I was again invited to join the combined Health and Physical Education Curriculum rewrite committee to meet State requirements that had changed in Health Education and Physical Education. Trampoline has been outlawed and dropped due to insurance rates and local Doctors lobbying to drop it. Health Education was fighting with the AIDS/HIV curriculum which little was known at the time and was changed each year beginning in 1985 until 1992. These curriculum writing experience would go on to help me later in my second career in higher education where I wrote curriculums for instructional technology in the classroom, and in software programs like Powerpoint, MS Publisher, Podcasting, Electronic Whiteboards, and Student Response clickers. Still to this day my concern for the social life of the student, their learning environment, and getting them to participate in their education as Dewey and James advocated so many decades ago.

Conclusion

In conclusion I have tried to demonstrate how my philosophy of life with the tenets of Dewey and James in mind, have helped me to be a good lifelong teacher. I have shown by example how I deal with diversity in students and how I have always attempted to treat every student equally and with sensitivity to their cultural and religious backgrounds. I have tried in my teaching career to model what a highly motivated person would be like. I have tried to demonstrate that I achieve above the norm and that I have always tried to do more than expected and more than anticipated by my peers and colleagues, as well as my students. Proudly I have always remembered my College’s motto “spirit, mind, and body.” Treat the whole person was the theme at Springfield College, former YMCA Training School and the college where Basketball and Volleyball were invented. In retrospect I have been fortunate to have had two teaching careers, one in the New York State Public school Secondary level for 31 years, and after retirement for 12 years of higher education experience at some of the best Universities in the Northeast; New York University, St. Johns University, the NY College of Osteopathic Medicine and the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

References

Alfred, A. (2010). Surviving the APA requirement. American Research Journal, 47 (2), 75-83.

Curz, M.J. & Smith, C.D. (2009). APA format for dummies. American Psychological

Association Journal, 58. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from Academic Search Premier.

Dewey, John, “My Pedagogic Creed” (1897), “The School and Society “(1900), “The Child and the Curriculum,” (1902), Democracy and Education, (1916) Experience and Education (1938).

Henniger, M.L. (2004). The teaching experience: An introduction to teaching. Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Henniger. M.L. (2008). Educational philosophies and you. (Rev. ed.). Athens, OH: Universal

Publications.

Longfield, J.A. (1997). A survival guide for f200 students. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from

http://www.iun.edu/~edujal/f200/survival.doc

James, William, “ Principles of Psychology (1890), “ Psychology: The Briefer Course,” (1892). A

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Taira No Masakado, Samurai

The flag of the Taira clan 940 CE Japan. One of the most powerful Japanese clans in the early history of Japan. The red butterfly.

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Looking Back at the Title V federal grant at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, Bronx, New York 2001-2005.

by Dr. Pelham Mead III

A true story of a five year Title V federal grant at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, a small Catholic College in Riverdale, New York, 2001-2005.

Twenty years ago in May of 2001 I was hired as the Director of the Teacher Learning Center at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York, on the border of Westchester county and the Bronx on the Hudson River. The Associate Dean at the time interview me first and I was recommended by Sister Margaret who was the Department chairperson of the Education Department. Originally, the Fall before in 2000 I applied for a job as a Professor of Special Education and Sister Margaret passed my name along as a possible Director of the Title V, Hispanic Serving Institutions grant for 1.1 million dollars.

The Dean of Students previously wrote the Title V grant but when it was awarded she had taken a leave of absence to care for her son in Arizona who was in a car crash. She never returned, so the 160 page grant was never read by anyone in the College. President Richard Flynn was hired in January of 2001 and insisted that someone be hired to run the Title V grant project for five years. I was interviewed in April 2001 and after several interviews including a group interview of ten people and a final interview by the President. There was no Teacher Learning Center at the time and no office.

After I was hired there was no office for me to work in. I stayed a week in the Reading Center until they could find an office. A storage closet on the four floor of the Administration building was selected. At the time it was full of cabinets and had no desks or chairs.

My first job was to hire an office assistant. I was allowed to pick my own office assistant, so I chose a Cambodian woman who was in my Computer training class at BOCES of Nyack. Her name was Py Liv Sun. I selected her because she was a quick learner and hard worker. I needed someone I could trust and depend on to keep track of the purchase orders and financial records. Py Liv was a a perfect choice. She lived in Suffern, so she drove to my house in Nyack and left her car there and we drove in together to the College of Mount Saint Vincent for five years. Later on I hired a Teaching Assistant, Christine Servano, who was an outstanding student in my Adobe Photoshop course at BOCES.

My second big task was cleaning out the storage room so we could set up office for the new Teacher Learner Center. I called Facilities many times to remove the metal cabinets, but they never came. Py Liv and I moved the cabinets out ourselves leaving them in the hallway to be removed. Finally, Facilities removed them. Next we needed furniture, so we were told there was old furniture in the fifth floor attic we could take. There was only one elevator that went to the fifth floor attic. We found office chairs and several desks in the attic. I got a hand cart from the basement and Py Liv and I moved the tables and chairs down the elevator to our new office on the fourth floor.

The clean-up came next. The place was dusty and filthy. We had to scrub all the wall and the floor before we could sit in the office. Eventually, I got approval to hire someone to paint the walls to cover all the cracks and stains. The ceiling lights needed new bulbs and the windows needed caulking to fill the cracks. Finally, we settled in and I was able to order several computers to work with using Title V grant money. All expenses had to be approved by the College Provost before I could order anything. Our budget for the first year was $340,000 dollars. All of it had to be spent or our account would be red flagged. The grant called for five smart classrooms a year to be installed on the campus. I reached out to the VP of Finance and the Director of Facilities for help in finding classrooms to upgrade to Smart Classrooms, but I got no cooperation all summer of 2001. Every time I called the Director of Facilities he ducked out on me. For some reason he did not want to be involved in the Title V grant development.

I interviewed Professors that were still on campus in May and June of 2001 and found some supportive friends for technology. Professor Pat Grove in Biology was one of my biggest supporters and had previously pushed for technology at CMSV. Dean Bob Coleman in the Communications department was another great supporter. He told me the history of the College in relation to technology and the hiring of an outside agency to run the college computer and technology program at the cost of five million dollars. Sister Margaret was also a good friend in helping to get teachers to sign up for Instructional Technology tutoring with the Teacher Learner Center. Sue Apold was the Director of the Nursing Department at the time and she personally came down for instruction from me in the first year. I was able to help her Professors write two successful grants for the Nursing Department. Professor Kathy Flaherty won a Masters Degree plus certificate Nurse training program from the New York State Education department. I helped write all the technical specs for that program and helped teach Nurses with Master degrees who wanted a certificate to teach on the college level but did not want to take a Doctor degree to do so.

The second Nursing grant for $650,000. dollars was a technology Nursing grant from the Federal Office of Health. I had to install a MAC lab for that grant and train the teaching Professors how to use the MAC Computers. We converted two old unused classrooms into a computer lab. I helped file all the Assessment paperwork for the Nursing Professors and kept all their equipment up to date. They had to film or video tape lectures for future reference, so I filmed the lessons and showed the Professors how to use iMovie and Final Cut Pro edit the movies and see them to a server.

Back to the Teacher learner center. The Associate Dean who hired me ran the Reading center for students and was very popular, but not with the new President. He forced her to retire in a year and all of a sudden she was gone to Canada to retire. There were a lot of turnovers in the Administration especially at the VP of Finance and Comptroller positions. The VP of Finance had spent funds from the grant illegally and without permission of the new incoming President for a financial software program costing $60,000. I found about the expenditure when I did the first year Assessment report and realized that $60,000 was unaccounted for. With some research, Py Liv and I went through all the purchase orders prior to my being hired from the fall of 2000. Lo and behold we found monthly payments to a software program in Indiana and signed by the VP of Finance. I knew that being the new guy in administration I could not opposed the VP of Finance until I had more evidence. I was able to absorb the expense within the ten percent rule the first year, but eventually, I had to inform the President that the VP of Finance has spent $60,000 from the grant illegally before he or I were hired in the fall of 2000. The President confronted the VP of Finance with the copies of the purchase orders Py Liv and I found and he was fired. The Director of Facilities was also fired for refusin to cooperated with the Title V grant.

After a whole summer of planning and interviewing administrators and faculty I achieved no progress on constructing the five smart classrooms in the goals of the Title V grant, thanks to the lack of cooperation from the Director of Facilities. Finally, when all hope dimmed and the first year grant was about to expire on September 30, 2001, I went to the President and told him the Director of Facilities had blocked me all summer and prevented me from installing any smart classrooms as required by the Title V grant. I informed the President that if we did not install the smart classrooms and spent the money, we would lose the 1.1 million dollar grant from the US Department of Education. He was furious that the director was not cooperating. The President told me to do what ever it took to install the five smart classrooms that weekend before there grant expired. “Do whatever it takes,” he told me.So I hired a subcontractor that was a specialist in smart classroom installations for $25,000. Sister Mary Edward the administrator of the Biology building helped me renovate the Biology 90 seat lecture hall. We could not safely remove a giant ceiling projector without danger to the workers. Sister Mary Edward talked the college plumber, a devote Catholic, into climbing through the ceiling to reach the heavy projector and lower it down by rope to the floor. I was nervous he would get injured, but luckily all went well. Sister Mary Edward helped me plan the TV wall rack which had to be drilled through a brick wall to hold it up. We ran a LAN wire from the computer server closet for WAN access for computers. The chemistry counter was removed and an electronic giant movie screen was also installed. Sister Mary Edward got President Flynn to replace the broken plastic seats and new curtains for the faded and torn old curtains. It was a very successful smart classroom conversion thanks to her help and Professor Pat Grove.

Back in the administration building I chose rooms 410 and 412 and on the third floor 310 and 308 classrooms with fifteen foot ceilings. Room 410 had been started but never finished as a smart classroom previously. It had defective windows that were broken and cracked that had to be replaced. The LAN system was drilled through the floors to the server closet on the first floor. Later on as technology improved I installed portable wireless modems. Eventually, I copied the UCLA approach and had the wireless modems installed on the telephone poles in front of the Administration building. This saved thousands of dollars in not having to put a modem in every classroom.

I began installed year two smart classrooms the fall of 2002 to make sure we had plenty of time to do it right. Meanwhile, My first class of professors had started. The professors were too interested in what the other professors were doing than what they were learning. I had to scrap the classroom approach and switch to individual tutoring to custom design the instructional technology to each Professors needs and learning ability level. Each Professor got an hour a week for 14 weeks in which they received a stipend of $1600. This factor alone made the TLC program very popular. In addition I ordered Laptop computers to loan out to Professors to use for the semester. Most of the King brand desktop computers were broken and beyond repair in most Professor’s offices. The five million dollar fee for an outside company did not go very far. Being that I had access to funds and the Technology department did not, I was able to get their cooperation.

A third priority was to establish a TLC web site with online learning courses in Photoshop, MS Word, Powerpoint, and Access. I also taught podcasting and movie editing to advanced Professors. To keep the graduates of the TLC program active and involved, I offered monthly Grad dinners in which I brought homemade chili, Py liv brought Cambodian spring rolls and Christine brought Filipino Adobo Beef. The unique foreign meals were a big hit. I reported the TLC progress and offered lunch time catch up clinic in new programs.

Installing Blackboard was the next major priority. I had to learn the program from scratch and then teach it to all the faculty. It took help from Manhattan college to install the program. I then had to manually upload each professor’s classiest and teach them how to upload their syllabus and use the lockbox. I was the administrator for three years until Manhattan college hired a full time person.

The biggest and most difficult job was a costly installation of the Banner all-college system. Manhattan College again provided tech support. The cost of the modules was thousands o dollars and training was included for the student database, registrar, financial, admissions and accounting modules for staff. The installation was so expensive it had to be spread out over a couple of years. The Banner system completely replaced the previous Manhattan college and College of Mount Saint Vincent systems. It was a very complicated and expensive process.

Dressed up in my Columbia Doctor’s Robe for Graduation ceremonies at CMSV.

Year

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My Years at the College of Mount Saint Vincent as Director of the Teacher learner Center and Coordinator of the Title V federal grant for 1.1 million.

Dr. Pelham Mead, Director of the College of Mount Saint Vincent Teacher Learning Center 2001-2005.

Dr. Pelham Mead at CMSV graduation with Sister Mary Edward Zipf, Sisters of Charity and Biology Professor.

The College of Mount Saint Vincent Biology Building 2002

The College of Mount Saint Vincent administrative building 2002.

My hard working assistant Mrs. Py Liv Sun at the CMSV Teacher Learning Center 2002-2005.

Professor Kathy Flannigan, Nursing Professor.

The first Smart Classroom presentation in 2002 Fall, room 210.

Dr. Mead and Kathy relaxing at the monthly TLC graduate dinner at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Kathy was one of the first Professors to complete the TLC tutoring program.

Christine Servano, my TLC teaching Assistant

Christine the TLC teaching assistant working with a Business Professor.

Professor Arlene Moliterno teaching in a Smart Classroom 2002.

Smart Classroom with electronic movie screen, TV mounted on the wall, overhead projector and LAN access with portable Laptop computer.

Py Liv Sun and Professor of Sociology 2003.

Dr. Pelham Mead attending College ceremonies in the fall of 2001.

Professor Pat Grove, Biology in her Office 2002.

The Biology Classroom 2002.

Christine TLC teaching assistant helps Professor Moliterno.

Professor Barbara Cohen, Nursing Graduate Professor 2002.

TLC Assistant Py Liv Sun and Christine Servano working at their desks in the Teacher learning lab 2001.

Newly renovated smart classroom -Biology Lecture hall, With the help of Sister Mary Edward, Biology administrator we completed the upgrade in September 2001. The old projector was taken down and a new $5,000 projector was installed. LAN access was installed and the Chemistry counter was removed. An electronic movie screen was installed and a 37 inch TV mounted through a brick wall to the right.

Dedicated Biology Professor.

Biology Department Chairperson in 2001.

Professor Jim working with students in Biology.

Dr. Green, Provost in 2001.

Professors Kathy and ….

Three female Professors at CMSV graduation in 2001.

Professor Fran and Sister Pat talking during the line up for Graduation 2001.

Director of the TLC- Dr. Pelham Mead and Professor Kathy.

Professor Arlene Moliterno, Teaching Professor at CMSV graduation 2001.

Dean of Communications, Bob Coleman, 2001.

Professor John, College Organist and Music Professor, graduate of TLC program using a Smart Classroom 2002.

Professor teaching in a new Smart Classroom 2002.

Sister Pat teaching in a smart classroom for Communications department. Notice the TV mounted in the background.

The Nursing Annex Smart Classroom. Previously a snack room. The floor was black from years of dirt. I had it sanded and resurfaced. The walls were cracked and had to be repaired. The overhead movie projector can be seen in this photo which was installed. The entire room was repainted after repairs. Outside the room a roof leak was also repaired. This room was a major unmaking but successful in the end.

Director of Nursing and Later VP, Susan at Graduation.

Bother, Professor of Communications 2001.

College of Mount Saint Vincent Castle seen through the trees.

Fran, Department Chairperson for Communications 2001.

CMSV department TV studio 2001 before the new one was installed in 2003.

Christmas party of 2001. Sister Mary Edward celebrating in Santa outfit.

Professors Celebrate at Christmas CMSV party 2001.

President Flynn and others sing at the Christmas Party 2001.

Dean Bob Coleman relaxes during the Christmas Party of 2001.

CMSV administration building from parking lot view.

Statutes in front of the CMSV library 2001.

Chapel of CMSV from the rear of the administration building.

The Business building under construction 2004. Maryvale was upgraded to a Fine Arts labs and Communication labs and classrooms, partially with Title V funds.

Maryvale construction. Before demolition.

Maryvale construction 2004-2005.

Front porch of Administration building. Before the old porch fell down, the Sisters of Charity had a porch going from end to end of the front of the administration building.

Another view of the administration building.

Maryvale construction pipes.

Sisters of Charity cemetery at the top of the hill.

Another view of the cemetery. All Nuns that taught or lived on the grounds and Priests are buried here.

Winter view of the great lawn from the Administration building.

2002 Spring View of Castle on the College of Mount Saint Vincent campus.

Winter view of Campus with Hudson river in the background.

Finished Maryvale 2005.

Road into the College of Mount Saint Vincent. 2002.

Gazebo on the back lawn behind the castle on the CMSB campus 2002.

CMSV auditorium and gymnasium building 2002 , spring.

Biology Building 2002.

Road to St. Vincent’s Point on the other side of the RR tracks on the shores of the Hudson river. Used to be a train station here in the old days.

Blackboard menu. Blackboard was installed by Title V and administered by Dr. Pelham Mead for three years until Manhattan College took over with a full time administrator.

Angel statute on campus.

Outdoor angel in the CMSV garden

Children praying to the Mother Mary.

Angel statute on campus

CMSV college logo

Female students exercise class at CMSV

Female CMSV students working out.

Exercise room at CMSV.

Fall leaf

Castle view from the administration building.

CMSV bell in the tower

Top of the administration building over the chapel.

Castle view.

Hudson river view looking toward the Tappan Zee bridge from the tower.

View from inside the bell tower on top of the administration building.

View of the road from the bell tower.

Administration building roof.

View from the roof.

Graduation Tent for 2002 goes up.

Stages of graduation tent going up on the great lawn. CMSV 2002.

Graduation tent covers the entire great lawn.

John, College Organist and Music teacher, Py Liv Sun and Christine Servano 2003.

Dr. Pelham Mead, Py Liv Sun, Christine Servano and Professor John.

College of Mount Saint Vincent chapel organ 2002.

College organist, John plays on the organ.

Organ view in chapel.

College organist John.

President Richard Flynn 2002 graduation.

Sister Mary Edward.

Faculty procession 2002 graduation.

Faculty procession 2002, Graduation.

Faculty entering Administration building.

Faculty leads student procession.

Student process in 2002 graduation at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

Graduation 2002

castle door on CMSV campus

Faculty ascend platform.

Construction sign 2005 graduation

Faculty gather before graduation. Fran from Communications in background sitting.

Faculty graduation 2002.

Fran, Sister Pat and Brother chat.

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Adobe Photoshop for Beginners

Here are the course projects and contents.

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The White Eyes and the Native Americans

By Dr. Pelham Mead

If you country was invaded by a foreigner what would you do? Fight back of course. Supposing the invader had superior weapons and you had only bows and arrows? Such was the plight of the American Native Indians. Who were the good guys and the bad guys? That depends on who you think had the right to wipe out entire nations of American Natives. The white eyes lied to the American Indians time after time. No wonder there was no trust.

Was the Native American Indian worse than the white eyes. Taking scalps was a tradition for Native Americans, but what about hanging a person from a rope in public until their neck broke or they choked to death.

Who killed hundreds of thousands of Buffalo? Not the Native American Indians, it was the white eyes with guns that could shoot rapidly. Buffalo skins had a great market value as well as horns.

Who held the white eyes accountable for their crimes against the Native American Nations? No one did. Killing Native American Indians was like a fox hunt where the fox had no chance in hell of surviving with hunting dogs chasing them down and men on horseback armed with rifles shooting at them.

So, a Few hundred years later the Native American Indian is treated as a minority with little or no rights. Look at Brazil how they do not let the Amazon Indians own land and have no more rights than a teenager.

When there is talk about reparations for the black slaves of America, think first about the white men who stole the land away from the Native Americans to begin with before the slaves were brought to America.

The Native American Nations had wonderful cultures and practices that are fading into the air over time. What can we do? Perhaps renew their status in the American culture and give them more support to get educated and become part of this great American society. Always remember the place in History the Great Chiefs and their Nations played in our history and the Wild West.

Why are there no national holidays that celebrate Native American Holidays?

Think about the Washington Redskins football team. Is Redskin really an insult?

Do we have any teams called the white eyes or the yellow skins? Think about it.

Are there any Polish poppers, or Irish hacks, or British cavaliers, or French Frogs?

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New York College of Osteopathic Medicine

Learning Outcomes Assessment 2009-2010

January 2009

Taskforce Members

John R. McCarthy, Ed.D.

Pelham Mead, Ed.D.

Mary Ann Achziger, M.S.

Felicia Bruno, M.A.

Claire Bryant, Ph.D.

Leonard Goldstein, DDS, PH.D.

Abraham Jeger, Ph.D.

Rodika Zaika, M.S.

Ron Portanova, Ph.D.

Pre-

Doctoral

Data

Post-Graduate Data

Career

data

Pre-Matriculation

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW 4

I. Introduction and Rationale 5

II. Purpose and Design 9

III. Specifics of the Plan 11

Mission of NYCOM 11

Learning Outcomes 11

Compiling the Data 17

Stakeholders 17

IV. Plan Implementation 18

Next Steps 18

V. Conclusion 20

A. OUTCOME INDICATORS – DETAIL 24

1. Pre-matriculation data 24

Forms 26

2. Academic (pre-clinical) course-work 47

Forms – LDB / DPC Track 49

Forms – Institute for Clinical Competence (ICC) 55

3. Clinical Clerkship Evaluations / NBOME Subject Exams 86

Forms 88

4. Student feedback (assessment) of courses/Clinical clerkship

PDA project 92

Forms 94

5. COMLEX USA Level I, Level II CE & PE,

Level III data (NBOME) 120

6. Residency match rates and overall placement rate 121

7. Feedback from (AACOM) Graduation Questionnaire 122

Forms 123

8. Completion rates (post-doctoral programs) 142

9. Specialty certification and licensure 143

10. Career choices and geographic practice location 144

11. Alumni Survey 145

Forms 146

B. BENCHMARKS 151

Bibliography 152

Appendices: 153

Chart 1 Proposed Curriculum and Faculty Assessment Timeline

Institute for Clinical Competence:

Neurological Exam – Student Version Parts I & II

Taskforce Members

List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1 Cycle of Assessment 9

Figure 2 Outcome Assessment along the Continuum 15

Figure 3 Data Collection Phases 22

Table 1 Assessment Plan Guide 23

New York College of Osteopathic Medicine

Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan

February 2009

Overview

This document was developed by the NYCOM Task Force on Learning Outcomes

Assessment and was accepted by the dean in January 2009. Although a few of the assessment

tools and processes described in the document are new, most have been employed at NYCOM

since its inception to inform curriculum design and implementation and to gauge progress and

success in meeting the institution’s mission, goals and objectives.

The Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan documents the processes and measures used by

the institution to gauge student achievement and program (curricular) effectiveness. The results

of these activities are used by faculty to devise ways to improve student learning and by

administrators and other stakeholder groups to assess institutional effectiveness and inform

planning, decision-making, and resource allocation.

Certain of the measures described in later sections of this document constitute key

performance indicators for the institution, for which numerical goals have been set. Performance

on these measures has a significant effect on institutional planning and decision-making

regarding areas of investment and growth, program improvement, and policy.

Key performance indicators and benchmarks are summarized below and also on 􀁓􀁄􀁊􀁈 151

􀁒􀁉􀀃􀁗􀁋􀁈􀀃􀁓􀁏􀁄􀁑􀀑

Indicator Benchmarks

 Number of Applicants Maintain relative standing among Osteopathic Medical

Colleges

 Admissions Profile Maintain or improve current admissions profile based

on academic criteria (MCAT, GPA, Colleges attended

 Attrition 3% or less

 Remediation rate

(preclinical)

2% reduction per year

 COMLEX USA scores

(first-time pass rates,

mean scores)

Top quartile

 Students entering

OGME

Maintain or improve OGME placement

 Graduates entering

Primary Care careers

Maintain or improve Primary Care placement

 Career characteristics Regarding Licensure, Board Certification, Geographic

Practice, and Scholarly achievements–TBD

I. Introduction and Rationale

At NYCOM we believe it is our societal responsibility to monitor our students’ quality of

education through continual assessment of educational outcomes. On-going program evaluation

mandates longitudinal study (repeated observations over time) and the utilization of empirical

data based on a scientific methodology.

At Thomas Jefferson University, an innovative study was implemented circa 1970, which

was ultimately titled “Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education”.1 As a result of

implementation of this longitudinal study plan, Thomas Jefferson University was praised by the

1 Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care: Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education,

Thomas Jefferson University, 2005.

Accreditation Team for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for “…..their

academic interest in outcome data, responsiveness to faculty and department needs and the clear

use of data to modify the curriculum and teaching environment….their use of this data has

impacted many components of the curriculum, the learning environment, individual student

development, and program planning…” (TJU, 2005).

The Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education has been the most productive

longitudinal study of medical students and graduates of a single medical school. This study has

resulted in 155 publications in peer review journals. Many were presented before national or

international professional meetings prior to their publication (TJU, 2005).

According to Hernon and Dugan (2004), the pressure on higher education institutions to

prove accountability has moved beyond the acceptance and reliance of self-reports and anecdotal

evidence compiled during the self-regulatory accreditation process. It now encompasses an

increasing demand from a variety of constituencies to demonstrate institutional effectiveness by

focusing on quality measures, such as educational quality, and cost efficiencies.

Accountability focuses on results as institutions quantify or provide evidence that they are

meeting their stated mission, goals, and objectives. Institutional effectiveness is concerned, in

part, with measuring (Hernon and Dugan, 2004):

 Programmatic outcomes: such as applicant pool, retention rates, and graduation rates.

Such outcomes are institution-based and may be used to compare internal year-to-year

institutional performance and as comparative measures with other institutions.

 Student learning outcomes: oftentimes referred to as educational quality and concerned

with attributes and abilities, both cognitive and affective, which reflect how student

experiences at the institution supported their development as individuals. Students are

expected to demonstrate acquisition of specific knowledge and skills.

At NYCOM, we recognize that our effectiveness as an institution must ultimately be

assessed and expressed by evaluating our success in achieving our Mission in relation to the

following Outcomes:

1. Student Learning / Program Effectiveness

2. Research and Scholarly Output

3. Clinical Services

The present document focuses on #1, above, viz., Student Learning / Program Effectiveness.

That is, it is intended only as a Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan. At the same time, we are

cognizant that Institutional Effectiveness/Outcomes derive from numerous inputs, or “means” to

these “ends,” including:

1. Finances

2. Faculty Resources

3. Administrative Resources

4. Student Support Services

5. Clinical Facilities and Resources

6. Characteristics of the Physical Plant

7. Information Technology Resources

8. Library Resources

We believe it is our obligation to continually assess the impact of any changes in the inputs,

processes, and outputs of this institution.

The evaluation approach in this Assessment Plan provides for on-going data collection

and analysis targeted specifically at assessing outcomes of student achievement and program

effectiveness (educational quality). Assessment of achievement and program effectiveness is

based on objective, quantifiable information (data).

As a result of the NYCOM Learning Outcome Assessment Plan’s continual assessment

cycle, the report is available, with scheduled updates, as a resource in the decision-making

process.

The report provides outcomes data, recommendations, and suggestions intended to inform key

policy makers and stakeholders2 of areas of growth and/or improvement, together with proposed

changes to policy that strengthen both overall assessment and data-driven efforts to improve

student learning.

2 NYCOM Administration, academic committees, faculty, potential researchers, and students.

II. Purpose and Design

Well-designed plans for assessing student learning outcomes link learning outcomes,

measures, data analysis, and action planning in a continuous cycle of improvement illustrated

below.

Figure 1 Cycle of Assessment

Ten principles guide the specifics of NYCOM’s Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan:

1. The plan provides formative and summative assessment of student learning.3

2. The primary purpose for assessing outcomes is to improve student learning.

3. Developing and revising an assessment plan is a long-term, dynamic, and collaborative

process.

4. Assessments use the most reliable and valid instruments available.

3 Examples of the former include post-course roundtable discussions, Institute for Clinical Competence (ICC)

seminars, and data from the Course/Faculty Assessment Program. Examples of the latter include the AACOM

Graduation Questionnaire, COMLEX scores, NBOME subject exam scores, and clerkship evaluations.

Define

intended

Learning

Outcomes

Identify

methods

of measuring

outcomes

Collect Data

Review results

and use to make

decisions

regarding program

improvement

Start

Here

5. Assessment priorities are grounded in NYCOM’s mission, goals, and learning outcomes.

6. The assessment involves a multi-method approach.

7. Assessment of student learning is separate from evaluation of faculty.

8. The primary benefit of assessment is the provision of evidence-based analysis to inform

decision-making concerning program revision and improvement and resource allocation.

9. The assessment plan must provide a substantive and sustainable mechanism for fulfilling

NYCOM’s responsibility to ensure the quality, rigor, and overall effectiveness of our

programs in educating competent and compassionate physicians.

10. The assessment plan yields valid measures of student outcomes that provide stakeholders

with relevant and timely data to make informed decisions on changes in curricular design,

implementation, program planning, and the overall learning environment.

Outcomes assessment is a continuous process of measuring institutional effectiveness

focusing on planning, determining, understanding, and improving student learning. At

NYCOM, we are mindful that an integral component of this assessment plan is to ensure that the

plan and the reporting process measures what it is intended to measure (student achievement and

program effectiveness).

III. Specifics of the Plan

The NYCOM assessment plan articulates eleven student learning outcomes, which are

linked to both the institutional mission and the osteopathic core competencies

Mission of NYCOM

The New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of the New York Institute of

Technology is committed to training osteopathic physicians for a lifetime of learning and

practice, based upon the integration of evidence-based knowledge, critical thinking and the tenets

of osteopathic principles and practice. The college is also committed to preparing osteopathic

physicians for careers in primary care, including health care in the inner city and rural

communities, as well as to the scholarly pursuit of new knowledge concerning health and

disease. NYCOM provides a continuum of educational experiences to its students, extending

through the clinical and post-graduate years of training. This continuum provides the future

osteopathic physician with the foundation necessary to maintain competence and compassion, as

well as the ability to better serve society through research, teaching, and leadership.

Learning Outcomes

The following eleven (11) Learning Outcomes that guide this plan stem from NYCOM’s mission

(above) and the osteopathic core competencies:

1. The Osteopathic Philosophy: Upon graduation, a student must possess the ability to

demonstrate the basic knowledge of Osteopathic philosophy and practice, as well as

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment.

2. Medical Knowledge: A student must possess the ability to demonstrate medical

knowledge through passing of course tests, standardized tests of the NBOME, post-

course rotation tests, research activities, presentations, and participation in directed

reading programs and/or journal clubs, and/or other evidence-based medicine activities.

3. Practice-based learning and improvement: Students must demonstrate their ability to

critically evaluate their methods of clinical practice, integrate evidence-based medicine

into patient care, show an understanding of research methods, and improve patient care

practices

4. Professionalism: Students must demonstrate knowledge of professional, ethical, legal,

practice management, and public health issues applicable to medical practice.

5. Systems-based practice: Students must demonstrate an understanding of health care

delivery systems, provide effective patient care and practice cost-effective medicine

within the system.

6. Patient Care: Students must demonstrate the ability to effectively treat patients and

provide medical care which incorporates the osteopathic philosophy, empathy, preventive

medicine education, and health promotion.

7. Communication skills: Students must demonstrate interpersonal and communication

skills with patients and other healthcare professionals, which enable them to establish and

maintain professional relationships with patients, families, and other healthcare providers.

8. Primary Care: Students will be prepared for careers in primary care, including health care

in the inner city, as well as rural communities.

9. Scholarly/Research Activities: Students will be prepared for the scholarly pursuit of new

knowledge concerning health and disease. Students in NYCOM’s 5-year Academic

Medicine Scholars Program will be prepared as academic physicians in order to address

this nation’s projected health care provider shortage and the resulting expansion of

medical school training facilities.

10. Global Medicine and Health policy: Students will be prepared to engage in global health

practice, policy, and the development of solutions to the world’s vital health problems.

11. Cultural Competence: Students will be prepared to deliver the highest quality medical

care, with the highest degree of compassion, understanding, and empathy toward cultural

differences in our global society.

The NYCOM assessment plan provides for analysis of learning outcomes for two

curricular tracks and four categories of student

NYCOM has historically tracked student data across the curriculum, paying particular

attention to cohorts of students (see below), as well as NYCOM’s two curricular tracks:

a) Lecture-Based Discussion track: integrates the biomedical and clinical sciences along

continuous didactic ‘threads’ delivered according to a systems based approach;

b) Doctor Patient Continuum track: a problem-based curriculum, whose cornerstone is

small-group, case-based learning.

Current data gathering incorporates tracking outcomes associated with several subcategories of

student (important to the institution) within the 4-year pre-doctoral curriculum and the 5-year

pre-doctoral Academic Medicine Scholars curriculum. The pre-doctoral populations are defined

according to the following subcategories:

 Traditional:4

 BS/DO: The BS/DO program is a combined baccalaureate/doctor of osteopathic

medicine program requiring successful completion of a total of 7 years (undergraduate, 3

years; osteopathic medical school, 4 years).

 MedPrep: A pre-matriculation program offering academic enrichment to facilitate the

acceptance of underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged student

applicants.5

4 All other students not inclusive of BS/DO, MedPrep, and EPP defined cohorts.

5 The program is funded by the New York State Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program and the

NYCOM Office of Equity and Opportunity Programs.

 EPP (Émigré Physician Program): A 4-year program, offered by NYCOM, to educate

émigré physicians to become DOs to enable them to continue their professional careers in

the U.S.

The NYCOM assessment plan includes data from four phases of the medical education

continuum (as illustrated in Figure 2 and Figure 3): pre-matriculation, the four-year predoctoral

curriculum6, post-graduation data, and careers and practice data

Within the NYCOM Learning Outcome Assessment Plan, the Task Force has chosen the

following outcome indicators for assessment of program effectiveness at different points in the

medical education continuum:

 Pre-matriculation data, including first-year student survey;

 Academic (pre-clinical) course-work (scores on exams, etc.) – attrition rate;

 Clinical Clerkship Evaluations (3rd/4th year) and NBOME Subject Exams;

 Student feedback (assessment) of courses and 3rd and 4th year clinical clerkships and

PDA-based Patient and Educational Activity Tracking;

 COMLEX USA Level I, Level II CE & PE, and Level III data, including:

o First-time and overall pass rates and mean scores;

o Comparison of NYCOM first time and overall pass rates and mean scores to

national rankings;

 Residency match rate and placement rate (AOA / NRMP);

 Feedback from AACOM Graduation Questionnaire;

 Completion rates of Post-Doctoral programs;

 Specialty certification and licensure;

 Career choices (practice type–academic, research, etc.);

 Geographic practice locations;

 Alumni survey.

The Outcome Indicators—Detail sections of this plan (􀁓􀁄􀁊􀁈􀁖 24 􀁗􀁋􀁕􀁒􀁘􀁊􀁋 150) show the various

data sources and include copies of the forms or survey questionnaires utilized in the data

gathering process.

The NYCOM assessment plan identifies specific sources of data for each phase

Figure 2 illustrates which of the above measures are most relevant at each phase of the medical

education continuum.

6 And the five-year pre-doctoral Academic Medicine Scholars program

The NYCOM assessment plan describes the collection and reporting of data,

responsibilities for analysis and dissemination, and the linkage to continuous program

improvement and institutional planning

Compiling the Data

Discussions with departmental leaders and deans confirmed that data gathering occurs at

various levels throughout the institution. Development of a central repository (centralized

database) facilitates data gathering, data mining and overall efficiency as it relates to data

analysis, report generation, and report dissemination. This includes utilization of internal

databases (internal to NYCOM) as well as interfacing with external organizations’ databases,

including the AOA (American Osteopathic Association), AACOM (American Association of

Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine), AMA (American Medical Association), and the ABMS

(American Board of Medical Specialties).

Stakeholders

Information from the data collection serves to inform NYCOM administration, relevant

faculty, appropriate research and academic/administrative committees, including the following:

 Curriculum Committee

 Student Progress Committee

 Admissions Committee

 Deans and Chairs Committee

 Clinical and Basic Science Chairs

 Research Advisory Group

 Academic Senate

The NYCOM assessment plan sets forth benchmarks, goals and standards of performance

The major elements of the plan are summarized in Table 1: Assessment Plan Guide:

Learning Outcomes/Metrics/Benchmarks found at the end of this chapter.

IV. Plan Implementation

As discussed earlier, most of the assessment tools and processes described in the

document have been employed at NYCOM since its inception to inform curriculum design and

implementation and to gauge progress and success in meeting the institution’s mission, goals and

objectives. Beginning in fall 2008, however, assessment efforts have been made more

systematic; policies, procedures, and accountabilities are now documented and more widely

disseminated.

The Office of Program Evaluation and Assessment (OPEA), reporting to the Associate

Dean for Academic Affairs is responsible for directing all aspects of plan refinement and

implementation.

Next steps

1. Develop a shared, central repository for pre-matriculation, pre-doctoral, and postgraduate

data (see Figure 3). Time Frame: Academic Year 2010-2011

Centralized database: Development of a (shared or central) repository

(database) utilized by internal departments of NYCOM. WEAVEonline is

a web-bases assessment system, utilized by numerous academic

institutions across the country, for assessment and planning purposes.

Utilizing this program facilitates centralization of data. The central

database is comprised of student data categorized as follows:

Pre-matriculation Data includes demographics, AACOM pre-matriculation survey, academic

data (GPA), and other admissions data (MCAT’s, etc.).

Data is categorized according to student cohort as previously written and

described (see item III. Specifics of the Plan on pages 13-14).

Pre-doctoral Data includes academic (pre-clinical) course work, course grades, end-ofyear

grade point averages, the newly implemented, innovative Course /

Faculty assessment program data (described in Section 4), ratings of

clinical clerkship performance, performance scores on COMLEX USA

Level I and Level II CE & PE, descriptors of changes in academic status

(attrition), and AACOM Graduation questionnaires.

Post-graduate/Career Data includes residency match rate, residency choice, hospitals of

residency, geographic location, chosen specialty, performance on

COMLEX Level III, geographic and specialty area(s) of practice

following graduation, licensure, board certification status, scholarly work,

professional activities/societies, faculty appointments, type(s) of practice

(academic, clinical, research).

This database supports and assimilates collaborative surveys utilized by

internal departments in order to capture requested data (see item III.

Specifics of the Plan on pages 13-14) essential for tracking students during

and after post-graduate training. Specific data (e.g., COMLEX Level III,

board certification, and licensure) is provided by external databases,

through periodic reporting means, or queries from NYCOM, therefore the

database provides for assimilation of this external data, in order to

incorporate into institutional reporting format.

2. Establish metrics. Time Frame: Academic Year 2010-2011

Benchmarks and Reporting: Conduct a retrospective data analysis in

order to establish baseline metrics (see Compiling the Data on page 17).

Following development of these metrics, institutional benchmarks are

established. Benchmarks align with Institutional Goals as written above.

Reporting of data analysis occurs on an annual basis. An annual

performance report is compiled from all survey data and external sources.

Timeframe for reporting is congruent with end of academic year. Updates

to report occur semi-annually, as additional (external) data is received.

Data reporting includes benchmarking against Institutional Goals

(mission), in order to provide projections around effectiveness of learning

environment, quality improvement indicators, long-range and strategic

planning processes, and cost analysis/budgetary considerations.

Report dissemination to key policy makers and stakeholders, as previously

identified (see Stakeholders on page 17) in addition to other staff, as

deemed appropriate for inclusion in the reporting of assessment analysis.

V. Conclusion

The impact on student learning of such things as changes in the demographics of medical school

applicants, admissions criteria, curricula, priorities, and methods of delivery of medical education

deserve careful discussion, planning, and analysis before, during, and after implementation. This

plan facilitates change management at three points:

o Planning, by providing evidence to support decision-making;

o Implementation, by establishing mechanisms for setting performance targets and

monitoring results, and

o Evaluation, by systematically measuring outcomes against goals and providing evidence

of whether the change has achieved its intended objectives.

At NYCOM, accountability is seen as both a requirement and a responsibility. As healthcare

delivery, pedagogy, and the science of medicine constantly change, monitoring the rigor and

effectiveness of the learning environment through assessment of student learning outcomes

throughout the medical education continuum becomes paramount.

Figure 3 Data Collection Phases

Pre-doctoral Data

Pre-matriculation

Data

Post-Graduate

Data

Career

Data

Assessment

Process

Learning Outcomes7 Data Collection Phases8 Assessment Methods Metrics9 Development of

benchmarks10

Students will:

Demonstrate basic knowledge of OPP

& OMT

Demonstrate medical knowledge

Demonstrate competency in practicebased

learning and improvement

Demonstrate professionalism and

ethical practice

Demonstrate an understanding of

health care delivery systems

Demonstrate the ability to effectively

treat patients

Demonstrate interpersonal and

communication skills

Be prepared for careers in primary

care

Be prepared for the scholarly pursuit

of new knowledge

Be prepared to engage in global

health practice, policy, and solutions

to world health problems

Be prepared to effectively interact

with people of diverse cultures and

deliver the highest quality of medical

care

• Pre-matriculation

• Pre-doctoral

• Post-graduate

• Career

• Didactic Academic

Performance

• LDB Curriculum

• DPC Curriculum

• Formative / Summative

Experiences: Patient

Simulations (SP’s /

Robotic)

• Student-driven Course,

Clerkship, and Faculty

Assessment

• Clinical Clerkship

Performance

• PDA-Based Patient and

Education Tracking

• Surveys

• Standardized Tests

• Alumni Feedback

Vis a Vis:

• Admissions Data

(Applicant Pool

demographics)

• Course Exams

• End-of-year pass rates

• Coursework

• Analysis of Residency

Trends Data

• Standardized Tests

Subject Exams

• COMLEX 1 & II Scores

• Analysis of Specialty

Choice

• Analysis of geographic

practice area

• Academic Attrition

rates

• Remediation rates

• Graduation and postgraduate

data

• External surveys

• Applicant Pool

• Admissions Profile

• Academic Attrition

rates

• Remediation rates

(pre-clinical years)

• COMLEX USA

Scores I & II (1st

time pass rate /

mean score)

• Number of

graduates entering

OGME programs

• Graduates entering

Primary Care (PC)11

• Career Data:

Licensure (within

3 years);

Board

Certification;

Geographic

Practice Area;

Scholarly

achievements

7 Complete detail of Learning Outcomes found in III., pages 11-13.

8 See Figure 3, page 22.

9 List of Metrics is not all-inclusive.

10 See complete detail of benchmarks—pages 5 & 151.

11 Primary Care: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics.

Table 1 – Assessment Plan Guide: Learning Outcomes / Data Sources / Metrics

Outcome Indicators – Detail

1. Pre-matriculation data

Data gathered prior to students entering NYCOM, and broken down by student

cohort, which includes the following:

Traditional, MedPrep, and BS/DO students

 AACOM pre-matriculation survey given to students;

 Total MCAT scores;

 Collegiate GPA (total GPA-including undergraduate/graduate);

 Science GPA;

 College(s) attended;

 Undergraduate degree (and graduate degree, if applicable;

 Gender,;

 Age;

 Ethnicity;

 State of residence;

 Pre-admission interview score.

Additional data is gathered on the MedPrep student cohort and incorporates the

following:

 Pre-matriculation lecture based exam and quiz scores;

 Pre-matriculation DPC (Doctor Patient Continuum) based facilitator assessment

scores and content exam scores;

 ICC (Institute for Clinical Competence) Professional Assessment Rating (PARS)

Scores.

Émigré Physician Program students

 TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score;

 EPP Pre-Matriculation Examination score;

 Medical school attended;

 Date of MD degree;

 Age;

 Ethnicity;

 Country of Origin.

Specific forms/questionnaires utilized to capture the above-detailed information include the

following:

 MedPrep 2008 Program Assessment

 MedPrep Grade Table

 NYCOM Admissions Interview Evaluation Form

 Application for Émigré Physicians Program (EPP)

 AACOM Pre-matriculation survey (first-year students)

 NYCOM Interview Evaluation Form – Émigré Physicians Program

Samples of the forms/questionnaires follow

MedPrep 2008 Program Assessment

Successful completion of the MedPrep Pre-Matriculation Program takes into consideration the

following 3 assessment components:

1. Lecture-Discussion Based (LDB)

2. DPC (Doctor Patient Continuum)

3. ICC (Institute for Clinical Competence)

A successful candidate must achieve a passing score for all 3 components. Strength in one

area will not compensate for weakness in another.

1. The first component assesses the Lecture-Discussion Based portion of the MedPrep Pre-

Matriculation Program. It is comprised of 3 multiple choice quizzes and 1 multiple choice exam.

 Histology

 Biochemistry

 Physiology

 Genetics

 Physiology

 OMM

 Pharmacology

 Pathology

 Microbiology

 Clinical Reasoning Skills

Each of the three quizzes constitutes 10% of an individuals overall LDB score and the final exam

(to be conducted on June 27) constitutes 70% of an individuals overall LDB score (comprising

100%) in the Lecture-Discussion portion of the program.

2. The second is based upon your performance in the DPC portion of the MedPrep Pre-

Matriculation Program. There will be a facilitator assessment (to be conducted on June 26),

which will comprise 30% of an individual’s grade and a final written assessment which will be

70% of an individual’s overall DPC score.

** Note – Both the Lecture-Discussion Based and DPC passing scores are calculated as

per NYCOM practice:

 Average (mean) minus one standard deviation

 Not to be lower than 65%

 Not to be higher than 70%

3. The third component is the ICC encounter designed to assess your Doctor Patient

Interpersonal skills. This assessment is evaluated on the PARS scale described to you in the

Doctor Patient Interpersonal Skills session on June 12, by Dr. Errichetti.

After the program ends, on June 27th, all three components of the assessment will be compiled

and reviewed by the MedPrep Committee. The director of admissions, who is a member of the

committee, will prepare notification letters that will be mailed to you within two weeks.

Please note:

The written communication you will receive ONLY contains acceptance information. NO

grades will be distributed. Exams or other assessments (with the exception of the Lecture-

Discussion Based quizzes, which have already been returned) will not be shared or returned.

Please DO NOT contact anyone at NYCOM requesting the status of your candidacy. No

information will be given on the phone or to students on campus.

Thank you for your participation in the MedPrep Pre-Marticulation Program. The faculty

and staff have been delighted to meet and work with you. We wish you success!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Granat

Last Name, First Name

Quiz #1

Score

(10% of

Overall

LDB

Score)

Quiz #2

Score

(10% of

Overall

LDB Score)

Quiz #3

Score

(10% of

Overall

LDB

Score)

LDB Final

Exam

Score

(70% of

Overall LDB

Score)

Overall LBD

Score

(Exam and

Quizzes

Combined)

Overall

DPC

Score

Overall

ICC

Score

NEW YORK COLLEGE OF OSTEOPAHTIC MEDICINE

ADMISSIONS INTERVIEW EVALUATION FORM

Applicant______________________________________________________ Date____/_____/____

The Future of the College, Secondary and Elementary Classroom 2020+.

Due to the coronavirus Education in College and other levels will never be the same. Protection against the coronavirus and future pandemic viruses will require Social Distancing and the wearing of face masks to prevent spreading of a virus from one student to another or to the teacher. I have a solution for Elementary, Secondary and College schools to still have classrooms with live students instead of complete online courses. The average Secondary school grades 7-12 usually has 32 student except in some States it may rise to 45 in a classroom to one teacher. To allow for social distancing in the future the number of students in a classroom is going to have to drop from 32 to half that amount or 16 students.

This change would impact the Teacher contracts and agreements with the teacher Unions. Instead of having 8 classes a day of which teachers teach five, the new norm will be twice that number or 16 short classes a day. Short classes would be twenty minutes long instead of the usual 50 minutes. Teachers will have to teach ten short classes a day. Department chairpersons who use to be excused for teaching several classes a day would have to return to a full teaching regiment of 16 classes a day.

Online in school classes can be made available to help make the new curriculum easier to apply. Music auditoriums are the largest room in most schools next to the gyms. In auditoriums student could sit every other seat for social distancing with their own laptop or iPad and log on to the online course they were assigned for that period.

Lunch or cafeteria would have to change to allow social distancing . Every other seating might not work, so chairs might have to be placed in hallways near the cafeteria. Schools in warm climates could have an expanded outdoor picnic area with plenty of extra permanent seating installed.

Online course can supplement in class courses with support and guidance after school at home.

In College money walks and money talks. College Presidents will be tempted to go the all class online route to save massive amounts of money, while at the same time charging tuition to students who log on from home. Dormitories could become problem as the students at UCSD have complained, “why should they pay for a dorm or apartment when they can log on from home? At the NY College of Osteopathic medicine where I worked as. Director of Faculty Development and Assessment they had streaming for all lectures. The lucky thing is that only had two lectures going on at the same time. If a University were to apply instant streaming of all lectures and classrooms the cost would be prohibited due to the need for massive computer server storage space. The down side of streaming other than cost is that the students did not come to the lectures and instead remained at home with a cup of coffee and a donut. The administration at the NY College of Osteopathic medicine could not figure out how to get the students to attend the lectures. The solution was simple. Stop streaming the lectures and handing out of lecture notes in advance. Online course can be bought from third party companies or developed over time with the existing faculty. The problem there is intellectual property rights. Does the Professor had full rights to the classes and curriculum they write and teach or does the University or College have the full property rights to the recorded video copies of the lectures? That depends on the employment contract the Professors sign when they are hired. If they agree to give the University or College full legal rights to replay a Professor’s lectures for eternity than the Professor has no rights. Online courses save Colleges and Universities millions of dollars by not having to provide classroom space or pay a live professor to teach the course.

Some Universities provide a Professor at the beginning of the course and at the end for the final exam and the rest of the course is online. Blackboard is an online administrative system that I was certified and trained in that makes online teaching easy with computer testing, online grading reporting, lock boxes to record when an assignment is handed in onetime and the full curriculum can be posted in advance. Some textbook companies will provide the full text of their books to be uploaded to Blackboard for students to read and not have to pay for an expensive textbook.

Obviously the human interaction between student and teacher is going to suffer. There might be a decline in Teachers due to the new non personal online teaching approach? One big glitch is what happens when the servers go down? No server, no internet, no classrooms broadcast. Hacking will be a major problem and colleges, schools and universities will have to learn how to protect their online systems.

E-mailing a professor is always going to be risky if the student can upload a virus or deliver a link or app that tracks a Professors keyboard. Protected institution e-mails are the only way to prevent this.

Will the online system come the fall of 2020 be good? Probably not because schools have not had the time to train their teachers how to teach online. Early Kindergarten and first grade students will need software that is good for their age level. Who is to pay for these iPads or laptops, the district or college or the student. Many students come from poor families that cannot afford an iPad. They will need financial assistance to secure an iPad and the training how to use one on cds or dvds.

The shorter class time is actually a plus for student with a short attention span. It makes teaching more concentrated. Teachers tend to blab a lot and this will teach them to be concise. Online projects must be completed in 20 minutes.

Physical Education is more essential than ever as an outlet from being cooped up all day and for character development. Online instruction is not a good venue for character development. Good sportsmanship carries over into adult life and provides guidelines for interaction with others in sports. Learning to lose as well as win and profit from losses to eventually win says a lot about Physical Education. We live in an age of overeating students who are so obese they cannot do many things like run or hike. They run out of breath when walking or riding a bike. They are made fun of by their peers. Physical Education will teach students what they cannot learn on a computer. Live body practice is a great way to teach a person’s muscles how to coordinate a skill or sport. Just watching on a computer is not the same. Muscles have memory and the more you repeat a skill, the better you become using that skill.

This is only the beginning of the discussion. Next time the mathematics of setting up a school master schedule with 20 minute classes and 16 sections a day.

Dr. Pelham Mead, June 2020

My Best Ten Screen script Concepts

by Dr. Pelham Mead

My Ten best High Concepts are: Proseries 60- Pelham Mead

1- Solar Space Pirate– Jake Johnson is an international playboy, and Hawk Space Academy drop-out who reunites with his ex-girlfriend, Veronica Green, from the Academy, and helps her to chase down a Space pirate, Count Von Wertz, who uses a stolen Solar Sailing Space ship called the Green dragon to intercept gold ore cargo space ships traveling from Mars to Earth.

2- I Saved President Lincoln– Based on the true story of Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton agent in history, who discovers a plot to assassinate President Elect Abraham Lincoln, and helps to convince President Elect Lincoln to change his train schedule to avoid being killed.

3-Don’t be Square– A story about teaching junior high in the 1960’s and 1970’s amid all the social issues of the civil rights movement, free drug era, free sex era, and the conflict between the administration and the teachers.

4– Captain Retro– An autistic young man plans for, and wins the Powerball lottery for four million dollars, and hopes to become a Super-hero, but that is not in the cards for his future.

5-The Glaive of Light (Sword of Light)- A fantasy story set in Celtia, Ireland, 100 b.c. where a small person, Kenkenny, becomes the Keeper of the Glaive of Light by the Good and Bad Gods and sent on a mission to find a good person of pure heart to use the Glaive for the good of mankind.

6– The Personal Diary of Anne of Cleves– A personal diary of one of the most famous Queens of England and how she survived not getting her head cut off by King Henry VIII.

7- The Seabury Chronicles– A modern day Genealogist and College Professor attempts to track down the personal secretary of his great, great, great Grandfather who lost millions in negotiable bonds when the secretary stole all the bonds, disappeared and was never caught. He takes revenge on the descendants of the secretary when he discovers where they are living.

8– A Teacher Goes to War– Based on a true story, a College Professor from Maine, with no military training, joins the Northern Army in the Civil War, only to find himself in the middle of the Battle of Gettysberg defending Little Round Top Hill.

9-Sister Angelina CIA Nun– Based on the real murder of three Nuns in Burundi, Africa, an Ex-Nun is hired by the CIA, and the Vatican Holy See to investigate the murder of three Nuns in Burundi, Africa from inside the Kamenge convent.

10- Destiny- A Robot self manned space ship heads to the Alpha Centuri system with specimens of the best sperms and eggs mankind could offer to replant a new population on another planet, only to get turned around in a black hole in space, and sent back to Earth in another time. The Robot following its Prime Directive and is confused, and attempts instead, to fertilize major leaders in history to change their original time line.

Professors that Graduate from my Teacher Learning Center tutoring in 2001-2002 at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

The Castle and Admissions center on the campus of the College of Mount Saint Vincent

college logo

Dr. Susan Apold 2002, and Dr. Kerrigan, Chemistry

Sister Pat teaching in a Smart Classroom 2002

John the Music Professor and College organist 2002

Sister Edward dressed up as Santa at 2002 Christmas Party

Professor Pat Grove, Biology teacher and technology supporter

Bernadette, Professor Sociology and Py Live Sun, TLC secretary 2002

Teaching Assistant Christine working with Professor Kathy Flaherty in the TLC room.

Professor Arlene Moliterno teaching in a Smart Classroom with animated Powerpoint slides.

Nursing snack room converted into a Smart Classroom 4th floor annex, College of Mount Saint Vincent

Py Liv Sun , TLC secretary working hard in the TLC

The first Professor to teach in a Smart Classroom rm. 310

TLC web site the College of Mount Saint Vincent

Professors chatting before Graduation 2002

Bob Coleman, Dean of Communications 2002 Christmas party

President Flynn singing at the first Christmas party 2002

John, Py Liv, Christine and Pel Mead 2002

The Biology Lecture hall after remodeling as a Smart classroom thanks to the Title V grant funds. Note the large electric screen and the wall mounted TV in the background. WIFI was also installed as well as a new ceiling projector.

The College

By Dr. Pelham Mead

The College of St. George of Staten Island

Outline

Introduction

Each and every College and University in the United States whether a Catholic College or Private or Public College always has something to hide. It seems to be standard procedure to sweep problems under the rug rather than deal with the problems in an honest and outright manner. Sadly, faculty and students suffer in the end from the indiscretions of the Presidents, and administrators. When monies are stolen from accounts and the person is caught, most Colleges deal with it internally so as not to let the story get into the Newspapers and produce a bad image of the College. Colleges and Universities are often afraid of the impact of a bad story and how it will affect their alumni contributions. Their justification is when a major bad story breaks that puts the College of University in a bad light; there is a domino effect as to public opinion and alumni opinion. Colleges or Universities are afraid that alumni will stop making contributions to the school because of bad story of embezzlement, violence on campus, child sexual abuse, administrative misdeeds, and other negative stories.

Take for instance the case of Joe Paterno the Football coach at Penn State University shows that he reported a case of suspected sex abuse of young boys by an assistant coach to his superiors and they in turn swept the problem under the carpet until all hell broke loose in the fall of 2010 and the story came to the surface when one or more victims told their story to the Police and the Newspapers. The story went viral and Penn State was put in a very poor light nationally and internationally. The first effect of this poor image would be alumni concern and a sudden decrease of alumni contributions. Some alumni are such large contributors that they often have great leverage with the University Trustees. In the Penn State situation the Trustees needed to exercise “
damage control,” since the case was in all the National Newspapers. They fire Joe Paterno immediately to stop all the News stories. That had a limited effect. It may also have been that the politics of Penn State Trustees had asked Coach Paterno on numerous times to step down and retire. This bad news provided an opportunity for them to finally be able to take action in getting 85-year-old Coach Paterno to step down. While he was coaching he was a powerful man that could tell the President and the Trustees what he wanted to do. Look at the numbers at Penn State. The football stadium seated 65,000 people all paying for tickets. The alumni contributors for the football program specifically and boosters as they are called who always raise funds for the Football program for full scholarships, uniforms, travel funds, coaching salaries, trainers, printing and marketing expenses. Penn State was an empire of Football income and contributions and at Penn state as well as any other campus the bottom line is money.

This book, although fictional in nature, is based on events that actually happened at many Colleges across the United States over a period of twenty years 1980 to 2011. In no way is this book intended to cause malice toward any College or Institution or President or administrative or faculty individuals. The real intention of this book is to show what really goes on behind the scenes in Colleges and Universities in the United States and how “cover up” is the motto of the day.

The first story is about a fictitious Catholic College in Staten Island, New York called St. Georges College. This College was on the property belonging to the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Originally, like so many other Catholic Colleges, St. Georges began as an all Women’s Colleges in the early 1900’s, and due to declining enrollment became a coed College in 1960. Many small Catholic Colleges that do not have a wealthy alumni base suffer from the same problems, and that is a low or poor alumni funding to help the college survive. Many people do not realize that all Colleges and Universities are tuition dependent as their main source of income. The smaller Colleges public and catholic do not have research departments that generate a lot of federal grants for scientific research, and a lot of funding for faculty, scientists, and facilities.

Smaller Colleges also suffer from their inability to have good grant writers. They often have only one Development administrator who usually cannot write grants but only organize grants. It is the professors that have to write grants, or knowledgeable administrators that have the time and the motivation.

One source of income for Catholic Colleges used to be endowment such as naming a classroom for an alumnus contribution. Large million dollar donations would grant an alumnus getting a building named after them. This worked well for a few decades, but after time, each and every classroom, building, gymnasium, pool, sports field, etc. had been named for some alumni that gave money. Even scholarships were named after the alumni contributor. Special graduation awards got to departments where previous alumni funded a Communications Department award, or a Biology Department award.

Eventually the selling of names on classrooms and buildings much like the selling of pews in churches in the 1800’s and early 1900’s became a thing of the past. Catholic colleges did not have many means of raising funds especially after the Diocese of New York or any other supporting Diocese began cutting funds to Catholic Colleges, and even Catholic Schools in the 1980, 1990, and 2000’s.

Since tuition is the main source of Catholic Colleges, unlike their Public College counterparts who also get funding from the State, Catholic College try to keep the tuition low so that they can serve 2^nd generation immigrant students, low income, and minority students. Small Catholic College realize they cannot compete with publically funded State Colleges, so they target their students from the lower pay scale of available students. Since their mission is to help the poor or help the minorities, they practically give away the tuition in grants, scholarships, and special financial awards. These scholarships are based on need and usually reduce the already low tuition to 50% less than full tuition. If the housing or enrollment is limited at a small Catholic college then they are in trouble. They will always be capped at the amount of students they can house and enroll. Commuter students comprise a large portion of many College and University enrollment. St. Johns University in Queens had 20,000 students in 2010, and only a few hundred live on campus in the few dormitories. This means that almost the entire St. John University student had to commute everyday.

At St. George’s College of Staten Island only 20% of the students commuted. There were enough dorms on campus to house 2,000 students. The dorms were all old , rundown, and not very attractive. They were cheap as far as monthly rent goes.

St. George’s College did not make much money on dormitory fees, and in the summer the dorms were mostly empty.

In the early years of St. George’s College the majority of the college faculty were Nuns from the Order of the Holy Cross. They worked for no pay except a small 10% living allowance, and they all lived in housing on the campus. The College in the early years 1930 through the 1950’s made a nice profit, because it’s faculty costs were extremely low. This changed over time because the Nuns were not getting new novices after WWII, and many were dying off. By 1980 70% of the original teaching staff of Nuns had passed away. Only a dozen teaching and administrative Nuns remained at St. George’s College as of 2000. Many other Catholic Colleges run by Nuns were suffering the same thing with a decline in Nuns on the teaching staff.

The Betrayal of the Nuns

At an all Women’s College in White Plains, New York the “Sisters of Life.” ran a College called Northern Westchester College. It suffered a decline in teaching Nuns , and enrollment during the 1960’s, when there was the anti-war, anti-establishment, and anti-church movement in the United States. Their enrollment dropped to an all time low of 300 students. They converted to coed by 1965 but the change came too late, and they were faced with closing. A large University from New York city wanted to locate a Medical School in Westchester on the property the Sisters of Life. The Northern Westchester College was prime property in White Plains. They negotiated a deal to support Northern Westchester College, and at the same time build their Medical school on the same grounds. By 1970 the Northern Westchester College was closed, and the Medical school was booming with enrollment. The Sisters of Life were left out in the cold when the college finally closed even though the University promised to promote and keep Northern Westchester College open no matter what.

Another group of Nuns called the “Sisters of the Humble Poor,” has a viable Catholic Prep school in Westchester that began in 1901. Their school “St. Peters Prep of Westchester,” began to lose Nuns as they died out, and few replaced them. Originally the rich families sent their children to the famous St. Peters Prep of Westchester because it was well known as a good Catholic school that placed many graduates in large well known Universities such as Princeton, Yale, and New York University. After WWII, the teaching Nuns had dropped to only 1/3 of the faculty, and lay teachers had to be hired which increased the costs of the Prep school. The buildings of the late 1800’s were crumbling and the neighborhood around the Prep school slowly became a slum. By 1975 the Sisters of the Humble Poor were forced to sell the Prep school or default to New York City in taxes. They sold it to a Jewish school that promised on the sale contract to never sell the school buildings or property to private housing developers. The Jewish Yeshiva lasted ten years, and then went out of business. They sold the property and buildings to a private housing developer who wanted to put in condo units. The “Sisters of the Humble Poor,” sued the Jewish Yeshiva and after many years in court they won a one million dollar judgment. Unfortunately, the one million dollars came too late, because by the time of the settlement there were only four Sisters of the Humble Poor still alive. They donated the money to St. George’s College of Staten Island in exchange for a home for the four surviving Nuns to retire, and live out their lives. St. George’s College gratefully accepted the contribution and repaired it’s one hundred year old roof on its main administration building. “Easy come, easy go” became the motto for the “Sisters of the Humble Poor.”

The “Sisters of The Divine Heart,” of Westchester, New York were another group that was taken advantage of by another College. They had a K-12 Catholic School in New Rochelle, New York for over 100 years having been an orphanage originally. It served Civil War children of fathers who were killed in the war. During the Civil War the “Sisters of the Divine Heart,” served in the War for both the North and the South in Medical hospitals. After the war they formed a small orphanage in New Rochelle sponsored by a millionaire that wanted to leave a legacy in his name so they named the Orphanage Sampson’s Orphanage. In 1910, the orphanage became an elementary school and in 1922 it became a high school also handling grades K-12. By the late 1930’s, after the depression, they got a charter for an All-Woman’s College called Mount New Rochelle Catholic College. By the 1960’s, the College was in major financial trouble so it merged with Rochelle Shore College. Rochelle Shore College promised to maintain the Mount New Rochelle College, and its buildings and provide housing for the retired Nuns of the “Sisters of the Divine heart.” By 1972, Rochelle Shore College had become a University, and it closed down Mount New Rochelle College, and sold it for a handsome profit to private housing developers. Unfortunately, the “Sisters of the Divine Heart,” had trusted the Rochelle Shore College trustees, and there was no clause preventing them from selling the property at any time in the future. They were eventually left out in the cold.

In Tarrytown high on the top of the Mountain was another All Women’s College Called High Mount College, that actually lasted until the 1990’s by providing a weekend college for women, evening programs, and an accelerated three year degree program for women. They refused to become a Coed College, and it cost them. Hartford College made them an offer to rent space on the college grounds, and they accepted. After five years, a problem developed with the Hartford College faculty who were union and the non-union High Mount Faculty. The Hartford College faculty were restricted to only the one building they leased from High Mount College. Problems developed and Hartford College threatened to pull out. As fate would have it High Mount College was going under financially. They could not keep enough all woman enrollment to survive. They made a deal with Hartford College to buy the property and buildings so long as it continued to support High Mount College. Three years later Hartford College got it’s revenge and pulled out of the property and sold everything to a private school and made a huge profit. High Mount College was closed forever.

The Betrayal of the Nuns
1. The Sisters of Life-College in White Plains-Pace took over
2. The Sisters of the Holy Cross- Iona closed
3. The Sisters of the Humble Poor- Sold Prep school to a Jewish Temple only to have them close years later and sell the property to a developer. The Sisters sued and won $1 million dollars.
4. Heritage- Most Monasteries, Nun supported orphanages began in the 1800’s when there was a need for children without parents. Especially after the Civil War when many children lost their fathers
5. History- Initially the Orphanages did very well and many later became Girls schools and then eventually even Colleges for Women. Traditionally the Church appointed male administrators to be in charge of these Catholic schools and colleges. By the 1960’s many catholic schools were in trouble of going out of business. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, the decrease interest in religion and the economy all contributed to the decreased enrollment in Catholic schools
6. Mission-Many of the Sisters had a mission to help the poor when in fact they themselves lived in poverty. It is difficult to help the poor when the Catholic Church stopped supporting these many Nun supported Catholic schools. Once the Nuns died out there was no one that would work for free to replace them. They kept costs down because they worked for virtually nothing for the Church.

The Catholic Church had it’s own financial problems and could not help the many Nun founded Catholic schools.

Orphanages became a thing of the past. The State of New York moved in the direction of group homes for wards of the state or orphans. Orphanages were in buildings that were built in the 1800’s and were crumbling and rotting away. They did not have modern electricity and modern plumbing which all had to be replaced over the years. Not having sufficient money to do this maintenance the buildings eventually became unsafe to use and were often condemned by building inspectors.

The dying breedWhere it was fashionable for Italian and Irish families to have a son become a priest and a daughter become a Nun was an honor.Times changed and the Catholic requirement of celibacy for Priest turned many a man away.For the NUNS they were replaced by trained Nurses in hospitals, Teaching changes and technology came into place outdating many NUNs in education. Italian and Irish families changed over the past 100 years to become mixed with other religions and other nationalities. The old world Italian and Irish traditions began to change and were forgotten. So the need for young girls to become a Nun faded. Women wanted equality and got it and they wanted jobs like the men and got that too. Women left behind the role of caregiver, homemaker, nurse and teacher and ventured into the business world. Women became more educated and earned more money and forgot about Nuns tending the poor.
Reduction of Sisters of Life over 100 years of service
1. The City of New York took over the services for the poor in many ways
1. Legal challenges to protecting the homeless became the job of the city to find housing.
1. The Catholic Nuns lost the significance they once had in society in treating the poor, the homeless, and pregnant young mothers. The role switched to the City schools to reach out to help pregnant young mothers with alternative schools. The State of New York provided welfare support to poor families. Orphanages became old buildings just like mental institutions that fell out of favor with society.
Retirement of the Sisters of Life
1. At some point in time even Nuns become to old to keep working so they must retire. There are very few retirement homes or facilities for Nuns that allow them to retire in some comfort with little or no pension money.
Changing from a male dominant leadership to a female dominant leadership
1. In the 1880’s the Catholic Church was male dominated and they did not tolerate female interference as in the case of Sister Eliz. Seton who was turned away by the Bishop when she wanted to form a girl’s school.
1. This trend continued up until the 1960 when Nuns had to reach out side to the secular community to help them with teachers and administrators.
1. Secular civilians were brought in to replace the Mother Superior to run Girls schools and Girls Colleges.
1. By the 1960’s all girls’ schools were dying out so they converted to COED and allowed boys to attend. At first the change was good but it did not last long with free public schools providing superior educations with well-trained teachers for the first time in a century.
1. Those Girl’s schools that did not want to change like Marymount in White Plains eventually lost their enrollment and had to sell out to Fordham University who in turn closed the school and sold it for a nice profit.
The aging of the infrastructure and the inability to prevent deterioration and planned maintenance.
1. It cost a lot of money for planned maintenance and Nuns traditionally id not have enough money left over to upgrade their buildings.
1. Natural disasters are bound to happen or simply erosion, storm damage, rusting facilities, aging decay, poor construction, and out of date structures all eventually fall down or become condemned or burn down from poor electrical wiring.
The wolves outside the door of the Sisters
1. 1980’s Sisters of Life ran St. Mary’s College (a 2 year institution) in Yonkers. I was teaching there as an adjunct at the time. They were underwater and IONA stepped in to help save the institution. Within 2-3 years, IONA closed the school, sold the property and made the money.
1. 1980’s the Sisters of Loving Care ran College of Sacred Heart in White Plains. In 1976. It was taken over by PACE who promised to continue to run the school with the nuns. PACE put their Law school there, and in a few years closed the college that the nuns previously owned. The nuns have been in litigation with PACE for years – I am not sure how or if this was ever resolved. Probably – information available on the web somewhere.
In early 2000’s Fordham took over Marymount in Tarrytown -which was underwater. They promised to continue the mission of the sisters and improve the college. Four years ago, Fordham closed them down, sold the property for a good sum. Marymount sisters were outraged

Administration-Catholic Colleges vs. standard Private colleges, differences similarities
1. In the Franciscan and Vincentian orders the President works for nothing and that saves a lot of money
2. In other Catholic orders the Mothers Superior have died out and no one was qualified to take their place. The schools had to meet new NY State Education requirements in both their teachers as well as administrators. Many schools and colleges lacked leadership within and had to seek Educational Administrators outside the Catholic community.
3. In One Women’s College a new President was being sought. The salary was not high and there were few applicants that wanted to be President of a financially troubled institution. A new male non-religious President was hired and he just happened to be Gay. Sadly, he used his sexual preference to hire boyfriends of his in major College Administrative positions even if they had no previous experience
4. Gay Male VP of Finance
5. Gay Male Director of Admissions
6. Gay Female Director of Athletics
7. Trustees who had no clue
Looking for a scape goat
1. The VP of Finance who stole from the Grant and how he met his demise.
  1. In 1999 the College of St. Paul of Staten Island received a Title V Federal Grant from the US Department of Education for Hispanic Serving Institutions. The College needed 25% Hispanic student population to qualify for the grant which was easy since 35% of it’s population was Hispanic coming from Staten Island.
  1. Before a Coordinator for the Title V grant could be hired the College began the grant with no one in place to direct the grant or carry out its goals. The writer of the grant had quit the college and there was no one who understood what the grant required. The VP of Finance at the time saw an opportunity to buy some financial software without informing the incoming President. The VP of Finance also allowed one of the Deans to draw down money from the grant for unrelated stationary supplies for her office and Reading Center. Sixty thousand was spent during the first year of the grant before a coordinator was hired in the spring of the next year.
  1. Two years after the VP of Finance was removed the opportunity presented itself to look into the purchasing records to see where the missing $60,000 was spent on without proper authorization from the President of VP of Academic Affairs who was theoretically in charge of the Title V grant.
The Dean who stood up against the New President’s policies and how she was forced into retirement.
1. As always the case when a new President comes in he or she sweeps house with all the previous VPs and Deans to put in place people that answer to the new President not to the traditions of old.
1. One such Dean was quite outspoken and she did not agree in the direction the new President was taking the college. She protested and was eventually asked to retire or resign. She retired and no one replaced her.
The changing of the guard with the VP of Academic affairs, the professor replacement, the Director of Nursing replacement.
1. When you have a constant change of the VP of Academic affairs, the School Controller, and the VP of Financial affairs then no college or school can operate properly. New Policies and procedures cannot be mandated and expect to be successful. If the finances are so poorly managed that even the President does not know how much money there is in the bank, then there can be no financial plan or mission that will work.
1. Kicking out the old guard. Sometimes the faculty and department chairperson age beyond the normal retirement age. They become dinosaurs that cannot change their old habits and become fearful of technology and new methods of teaching a whole new student body from the 1980’s and 1990’s and 21^st century. The president saw these as a move forward and forced out the old chairman into retirement or cut their positions to part-time. Along with these old-timers when many a dedicated Nun who had no place to go except teach at the college.

The firing of the Director of Personnel (gay man who had no background in finance) and who was hired because he had a relationship with the President. Fell out of favor with the president. Unable to properly manage the renovation of an old building. Blamed for taking retirement funds and using it to fund an elevator in the renovated building due to a summer shortage of funds
Pushing out old Nuns in teaching positions
Phasing out old faculty because they were old
Back stabbing
Inter-College relationships
1. College of St. George and the College of Holy Essence. The College of St. George of Staten Island was founded around the time of the Civil War and many of its buildings were built before the 1900’s. It began as an Orphanage and then became a Girls Prep School and then Woman’s College by the 1900’s. Nursing and Education were the biggest programs at the College. Many of its graduates became teachers and Nurses who never made a lot of money in their lifetime.
2. The College of Holy Essence was supported not by a Sister hood but the Franciscan Brothers of Staten Island who were well endowed by private donations. In the 1960’s both colleges were threatened with possible closure when they decided to develop a mutual relationship where they would exchange students and faculty to save on expenses. They also became fully coed and attracted a lot of Staten Island students from Italian and Latino families.
3. Benefits of cross-enrollment
  1. The College of Holy Essence had a great Sports program that it gave out many scholarships, whereas the College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island did not have any athletic fields or outstanding sports teams. Both schools were able to share sports facilities to cut expenses.
  1. The College of Holy Essence had a very high academic standard and offered Engineering, Math, Chemistry, Computer Programming, and other difficult academic programs. The College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island was service orientated so from it’s long standing tradition Nursing was it’s number one program and Communications was the second largest program thanks to cross-enrollment from the College of Holy Essence.
Shortcomings of cross-enrollment
1. Lots of lateness due to the need to catch a shuttle bus
1. Difference in each college’s Missions
1. Financial difference between the College of Holy Essence being the richer school and the Poorer College of St. Mary of Staten Island.
1. The athletes on full scholarships at the College of Holy Essence were not smart enough for Engineering and Computer programming so they all enrolled at the College of St. Mary’s Communications Program in Radio and Television that was a much easier and friendlier program.
1. The College of Holy Essence always wanted the controlling power when it came to cross-campus policies and enrollment.
1. The College of Holy Essence was miles ahead of St. Mary’s College of Staten Island in technology since they offered programming and put a high premium on advanced technology, wireless classrooms, Internet access, and smart classrooms and lecture halls.
The deadly President’s letter from St. George to the College of Holy Essence and how the contract between Catholic schools fell apart.
1. Effects on the Department of Communications. The department of Communications went from a student enrollment of 2000 students to less than 300 without the students from the College of Holy Essence. The Dean of Communications left for the College of Holy Essence when they offered him a major salary increase and a brand new facility and program that he could set up from scratch. Their only problem was a lack of space on campus to house the new Communications department. The assistant to the Director/Dean was promoted to the position not as Director but as Manager that commanded a lower salary. The Department Chairperson retired from Communications and the staff shrunk from over 20 adjuncts and 5 full time professors to less than ten part-time faculty.
1. Fine Arts, Education, Psychology, Nursing, Math, Chemistry, shared departments, all experience a reduction in class enrollment which translated to many adjunct and full-time faculty being fired.
1. Effects on enrollment. Initially the enrollment went down but the College of St. Mary of Staten Island loosened up on its enrollment policies and also hired placement counselors in Connecticut to recruit students.
1. St. Mary of Staten Island had a tradition of not offering Sport Scholarships and this policy prevented the Division III teams from excelling. Instead of sport scholarships, financial grants were given to athletes especially from Connecticut to help improve the Baseball team, basketball team, and Volleyball team.
D. The big Title III USDE grant
1. Minority serving institutions
2. Meeting the Federal agenda
3. Integrating technologies into the classrooms
  1. Installing smart classrooms
    1. The requirements for the smart classrooms were out of date with the installation of Televisions wall mounted with VCRs. By the 21^st century computer projectors and electronic white boards were the teaching medium of choice
    1. Previous movie screen and TV mounts were unsafe and not properly installed
    1. Improved TV mounts with “H” brackets that spread out the weight distribution on the wall. Bolted through the brick and plaster walls to the next classroom that plywood base to prevent the bolts from pulling out over time.
    1. Wireless technology in every classroom.
    1. Loaner laptops to access wireless technology
    1. Theft and classroom security
    1. Wireless projects and why they were easy to install but worked too slowly to be effective
    1. Tutoring faculty how to use technology in the classroom
    1. The shortcomings of the IT department.
      1. Part-time college students
      1. No defined mission
      1. No funding
      1. Developed out of Collegis five million dollar contract that ripped the college off blind. Computers were cheap and did not last three years. Parts were stolen from one computer to repair another computer, resulting in a computer graveyard.
      1. Underpaid personnel
      1. Poor HELP station
      1. Good personnel exit to find higher paying jobs.
  1. Installing smart lecture halls
  1. Installing smart computer labs
  1. Installing new renovated facilities

Integrating technologies into the curriculum and lectures
Writing a curriculum
Finding a facility for a Teacher Excellence Center
Finding furniture
Getting rid of file cabinets
Establishing a relationship with IT
Quid pro quo (one hand wipes another hand)
Personalities to work around
IT Director secrets
IT Director’s inability to install new Banner finance software and his making promises to the President he could not keep.

II. Catholic Stories

The Faculty Stories
Outsourcing
Collegis
Banner
Food Services
Cleaning Services

IV Expose’

Teachers caught having a sexual relationship with their students
Homosexual relations
Sex with female college students by faculty
Scandals in hiring procedures
The hiring of the Athletic Director
The hiring of the Dean of Students
The hiring of the VP of Finance
The replacement of the Director of Human Resources
The hiring of the VPs of Academic Affairs
How the VP of Finance tricked the school into a five million dollar contract with Collegis. She was a previous employee of Collegis and no one knew that until she quit her position at the College.
Pushing out the Education Department Chair who was a Nun
Department chairpersons making overload money
How they controlled the summer school system
How they were over paid even when they were freed from teaching to supervise teachers
The inability to change from the old system to a new system
The old way of doing things, cheapest thing goes
A constant shortage of money
An inability to meet the demands of technology
The inability of the Faculty Council to keep the President in line.
The spies on the Faculty Council.
The elevators
How the large elevator really broke down and why.
The two 100-year-old elevators that constantly broke down.
The lack of safety backup for elevators
The condemning of the stair cases
The surprise inspection that condemned the stair case to the extension as being dangerous
The 6-week disaster as a result of teachers being unable to get to their offices.
The falling down outside porch
The Nuns outside porch that rotted and had to be taken down
The constant repair problems with the remainder of the porch
The Administration building built on rock
The basement erosion
The actual bedrock visible in the basement of the building.

The Castle/ Student Services
The Nun in the tower
How she came to be there
The four story castle keep
Problems with the castle
The ineffective security guard system
Underpaid security guards
A director with no real power
No video cameras installed
No locked classrooms in the administration building
The stealing of smart classroom equipment by a security guard
The Friday afternoon thefts of projectors installed in 18 ft. ceilings
The motis operande
Catching the thief
Losing $10,000 worth of equipment
The administration doing nothing
The break-in to the Communications TV studio and theft.
The opportunity to use grant funds for wireless video cameras in the newly renovated building
The refusal
The eventual break-in and theft of thousands of dollars of TV cameras and recorders.
The eventual installation of the wireless video cameras after the theft
Reported rapes of female students on campus in the dorms.
The lack of safety at night with a poorly lit campus
Outside students from other colleges having access to the dorms
Local gang students roaming the campus at night
The forgotten Point Richard on the Hudson
The piece of valuable land cut off by the Metro-North rail road
The abandonment of the property
The abandoned Metro North Railroad station
The original train stop at the College of St. George
A change in transportation brings about abandonment of the train station and its destruction
The Home for Children of the State next door.
Right next to the St. George College property was a State Home for wayward children who often came around the fence to steal things on campus
The Westchester sewer plant next door.
The smell
The inability to control sewage overflow at the Sewer plant
The Elementary school run by the Nuns and it’s closing
Declining enrollment
Closing of the prep academy
Selling of the property to raise money
The high-rise building that replaced the property that was once the Sr. George Prep School.
The effect of a high rise building overlooking the campus
The loss of vital land that could have been used for campus expansion.
The selling of the first St. Mary Academy to a Jewish organization that folded and tried to sell the property for condos. The lawsuit and the one million the Nuns got which went to repair the administration’s building roof.
Declining enrollment
The decision to sell and the contract prohibiting being sold for other than educational purposes
The lawsuit and the settlement
Easy come and easy go, as one million dollar settlement has to be used to repair a seriously leaking administration-building roof.
The integration of Technology Over the five-year period of the Title III grants.
Hiring a director
Selecting staff
Completing a budget
$60,000 missing before the Director was hired
Tutoring 84 faculty over 5 years.
The Teacher Excellence Center Ambassadors
The Laptop computer loaner program
Balancing the grant budget annually
Grant rules and regulations
The liaison with the Communication Department and its Associate Dean
The relationship with the IT department
The relationship with The College of Holy Essence and its IT staff
The Presidents hiring of the Director of Technology at the College of Holy Essence to work part-time at St George’s College
The College of Holy Essence undermining the St. George College’s efforts in establishing technology.
22. The end of the grant
The politics regarding promised made in the grant and promise not kept by the President
The desire not to fund the Teacher Excellence Center and staff
Playing it cheap
Finishing the budget on time and on balance except for the $60,000 that was stolen by a previous VP of Finance but never replaced by the President.

The Winter Century Gymnastics Show Brochure

1970’s at the Century School of Gymnastics Ltd., Pomona, Rockland county, New York.

We dis the Winter Carnival in the old bubble building to highlight some of our best Gymnasts. We even rented professional spot lights and theater lights.

Chapter One-from the Novel-“The Junior High.”

Chapter 1- In the beginning

The name Cucamonga came from the name of a local Native American Tribe that used to live in the High Mountain area in New York. When the High Mountain school district began to explode in student population in the 1960’s it was decided that an additional Junior High school needed to be built. At the time there was only two junior high schools North JHS and South JHS. The students at South JHS were overcrowded in their school and they were on double sessions for a few years until the Board of Education of High Mountain school district put before the community a bond approval to build a third Junior high school to deal with the overcrowded conditions of the existing schools. The name of the new junior high was put up to the South JHS students to determine in a school-wide vote since ½ of these students would be sent to the new Junior high when it was finished in 1960. The choices were: Central High Mountain JHS, Washington JHS, and Cucamonga JHS. The students in South JHS did not want to go to the new Junior high school so as spoilers they choose the worse name they could and that was Cucamonga JHS.

The current Assistant Principal of South JHS was to be transferred to the new Cucamonga JHS when it was finished. He was given the choice of what teachers he wanted to bring with him, so he chose his best friends whom were all department chairman. They were all older men in the late 50’s and early 60’s. This seemed like a good base with which to start a new junior with experienced teachers. Actually no teachers transferred, only administrators. All of the rest of the teachers were hired new. In 1967 alone 300 teachers were hired in the High Mountain school district to meet the every expanding student population expansion. Cucamonga JHS started with 600 students and by 1975 had doubled to 1600 students in the one building built for only 1,000 students.

When the fall of 1960 came about the construction was not completed however the district moved the students into the unfinished building anyway. Construction delays caused the problem. While teachers were teaching in their classrooms, workers were drilling and nailing walls together in the next classroom. The noise problem was difficult to teach in without distraction. The auditorium was half finished with the seats not completely installed. Technically it was illegal to occupy a building that had not been finished but the district had no Plan B in case the building was not completely finished. Somehow the school district managed to avoid being fined by the local building code inspectors.

No sooner had Cucamonga JHS been built than it became overcrowded, and an extension was planned for and built in 1967. A small gym later was started in 1968 and finished by 1970 to accommodate the increase in student enrollment. A lot of problems developed with the heating and air circulation systems in the new extension requiring more construction and repairs to be made. Some classrooms lost all heat and were as cold as the outside weather in the fall and winter of 1967. Teachers had to move classes to the cafeteria or auditorium or library when the classrooms had no heat. A fire was started in a closet in the large gymnasium when a worker with a blowtorch accidently ignited the insulation in the ceiling while he was wielding metal braces under the roof. Fortunately the damage was limited to the storage closet and the fire department was able to get to the fire fast enough to prevent serious damage. The real damage was water damage to the gymnasium flooring. The boy’s locker room had showers but no hot water until that problem was fixed. In the 1960’s is normal to give out soap and towels to students to shower after class. It was mandatory at that time. When the 1970’s came in with the concern for individual liberties and student’s rights and many lawsuits to determine student’s rights the required showers were abandoned and a shortage in funds dropped the expensive towel and soap program in Physical Education. Eventually only the sports teams would use the shower rooms and Physical Education students went to class smelling and sweating.

The teaching staff grew from 70 teachers initially to over 120 teachers by 1975. Many part-time teachers also joined the teaching ranks and teachers who traveled from one school to another became another portion of the teaching staff. Para-professionals came into use known as Teacher Aides who needed only two years of College to be eligible for the job. The district used to have team teaching but para-professionals provided a cheaper approach than two full paid teachers to one class. For a few years there was a special education teacher and a mainstream teacher teaching a mixed ability group of students including special education students.

Community voting on public bond issues was always difficult because the majority of the High Mountain school district was represented by Jewish private schools called “Yeshivas.” The private Yeshiva population grew from 7,000 students in the 1960’s to 15,000 in the 1990’s. The Jewish community had to be courted by the Superintendent of High Mountain school district in order to secure their support of the public school budgets. Many trade offs had to be offered the private school community such as universal busing, used textbooks and used school furniture and special professional services. The Jewish community voted as a block against the expansion of the public school bond issues by busing Jewish voters to the voting poles. No public referendum could be passed without getting the Jewish community vote. The Jewish community were paying both for Yeshivas for their children to attend and for public school tax. Under New York State law the High Mountain school district Superintendent was legally responsible for all public and private schools within the borders of the High Mountain School District. Therefore, Yeshivas had to meet NY State Education requirements or they would not be certified. The High Mountain school district was one of only two major Jewish districts in New York State that had a significant number of students attending Yeshivas instead of Public schools. This meant that the formula for repayment to the High Mountain School from New York State did not include the private Yeshiva students. The public school system of High Mountain did not get any revenue from New York State to offset the cost of carrying thousands of Yeshiva students who were not in public school. This also included Catholic Schools that were a much smaller number of students. This lack of funds from New York State would eventually cause the High Mountain School district to develop a major shortage of funds to pay for the school budget every year. The shortage of funds developed into threatened teacher strikes, no teacher contracts for three years sometimes, cutting back in hiring new teachers, cutting back in sports programs such as elementary soccer, softball and basketball programs were cut. Concern Parents had to form their own sports associations to provide sports for elementary school children. This community sports program eventually grew to include Junior and Senior Highs students that could not qualify for the school teams.

The 1960 were a turbulent time in American with the Civil Rights movement taking hold, Black Power, radicalism in student organizations and the anti-Vietnam war movement. Coupled with the “drug generation,” and the Anti-war movement of hippies and beatniks the 1960’s and 1970’s were troubled times in American. These problems translated down to the local level with students mimicking what they saw on TV and what was happening in the media. Student protests were the thing of the day. Fake bombing calls INS were also the fade of the generation. Bomb fake calls came on a daily if not weekly basis and the entire school had to be evacuated every time. No one was every caught. This fad went on for years until a Principal from another school district had enough of the fake bomb threats and decided not to evacuate the building. After that many other school districts follow suit and made changes in their fire alarm systems with a yellow detection spray, video cameras, and a new approach to bomb threats. Twenty years later bomb threats would be a thing of the past, just as the Vietnam War became a thing of the past.

Some teachers were considered militant when it came to anti-Vietnam policies and that was unfortunate because they affect the minds of the children they taught. Militant teachers painted their rooms with psychedelic colors and logos to mirror the slogans of the times. Some of the militant teachers had long hair and dressed in jeans and worn t-shirts with logos like “No WAR,” or “Peace.” Militant song groups appeared on the music scene and could be heard in the militant teacher classrooms. The administrators were useless in being able to stop the militant teacher activities. The anti-War issue divided the faculty but no one would support an administrator trying to make a stand for or against the War or Militant teachers.

The term “politically incorrect, “ came into play. Black student could not longer be called Negro students. Black or Black Americans or African Americans became the buzzwords. The word “nigger” was the ultimate insult for black students when it was used by a white student or white teacher, however it seem OK for one black student to call another black student a “nigger.” It became known as the “N” word for white teachers or white students. There was a lot of racism during the 1960’s and 1970’s and many teachers tried to straddle the line but did not succeed. Expressions such as “your people,” smirked of racism. Black parents and black students were very race conscious during these turbulent years. All of these issues translated to problems at Cucamonga JHS as in all schools in the United States.

Teachers at Cucamonga JHS had to be especially careful in their language and how they treated black students in regard to how they treated other students. The sensitivity of race issues was on the surface and would not go away. Many teachers got into trouble when they used language that was misinterpreted by black students. Black students would often run to administrators and tell false tales to get a teacher they did not like in trouble because of the sensitivity of the racism issues during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Teaching during these turbulent times was no picnic. The militant teachers twenty years later cut their hair short and became part of the mainstream society as if they were never militant in their lifetime. It was amazing how some militant teachers became moles for the administrators after fighting the administration for so many years. It shows that in time you either conform to the rules and policies or get out. If a teacher wanted to make it to retirement age they all had to change over time and become more liberal or conservative in their philosophical approach to teaching and issues of society.

The College

The College of St. George of Staten Island

Outline for Proposed Movie Script

By Dr. Pelham Mead 2021.

Introduction

St. George’s College did not make much money on dormitory fees, and in the summer the dorms were mostly empty.

The Betrayal of the Nuns

The Betrayal of the Nuns
1. The Sisters of Life-College in White Plains-Pace took over
2. The Sisters of the Holy Cross- Iona closed
3. The Sisters of the Humble Poor- Sold Prep school to a Jewish Temple only to have them close years later and sell the property to a developer. The Sisters sued and won $1 million dollars.
4. Heritage- Most Monasteries, Nun supported orphanages began in the 1800’s when there was a need for children without parents. Especially after the Civil War when many children lost their fathers
5. History- Initially the Orphanages did very well and many later became Girls schools and then eventually even Colleges for Women. Traditionally the Church appointed male administrators to be in charge of these Catholic schools and colleges. By the 1960’s many catholic schools were in trouble of going out of business. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, the decrease interest in religion and the economy all contributed to the decreased enrollment in Catholic schools
6. Mission-Many of the Sisters had a mission to help the poor when in fact they themselves lived in poverty. It is difficult to help the poor when the Catholic Church stopped supporting these many Nun supported Catholic schools. Once the Nuns died out there was no one that would work for free to replace them. They kept costs down because they worked for virtually nothing for the Church.

The Catholic Church had it’s own financial problems and could not help the many Nun founded Catholic schools.

The dying breedWhere it was fashionable for Italian and Irish families to have a son become a priest and a daughter become a Nun was an honor.Times changed and the Catholic requirement of celibacy for Priest turned many a man away.For the NUNS they were replaced by trained Nurses in hospitals, Teaching changes and technology came into place outdating many NUNs in education. Italian and Irish families changed over the past 100 years to become mixed with other religions and other nationalities. The old world Italian and Irish traditions began to change and were forgotten. So the need for young girls to become a Nun faded. Women wanted equality and got it and they wanted jobs like the men and got that too. Women left behind the role of caregiver, homemaker, nurse and teacher and ventured into the business world. Women became more educated and earned more money and forgot about Nuns tending the poor.
Reduction of Sisters of Life over 100 years of service
1. The City of New York took over the services for the poor in many ways
1. Legal challenges to protecting the homeless became the job of the city to find housing.
1. The Catholic Nuns lost the significance they once had in society in treating the poor, the homeless, and pregnant young mothers. The role switched to the City schools to reach out to help pregnant young mothers with alternative schools. The State of New York provided welfare support to poor families. Orphanages became old buildings just like mental institutions that fell out of favor with society.
Retirement of the Sisters of Life
1. At some point in time even Nuns become to old to keep working so they must retire. There are very few retirement homes or facilities for Nuns that allow them to retire in some comfort with little or no pension money.
Changing from a male dominant leadership to a female dominant leadership
1. In the 1880’s the Catholic Church was male dominated and they did not tolerate female interference as in the case of Sister Eliz. Seton who was turned away by the Bishop when she wanted to form a girl’s school.
1. This trend continued up until the 1960 when Nuns had to reach out side to the secular community to help them with teachers and administrators.
1. Secular civilians were brought in to replace the Mother Superior to run Girls schools and Girls Colleges.
1. By the 1960’s all girls’ schools were dying out so they converted to COED and allowed boys to attend. At first the change was good but it did not last long with free public schools providing superior educations with well-trained teachers for the first time in a century.
1. Those Girl’s schools that did not want to change like Marymount in White Plains eventually lost their enrollment and had to sell out to Fordham University who in turn closed the school and sold it for a nice profit.
The aging of the infrastructure and the inability to prevent deterioration and planned maintenance.
1. It cost a lot of money for planned maintenance and Nuns traditionally id not have enough money left over to upgrade their buildings.
1. Natural disasters are bound to happen or simply erosion, storm damage, rusting facilities, aging decay, poor construction, and out of date structures all eventually fall down or become condemned or burn down from poor electrical wiring.
The wolves outside the door of the Sisters
1. 1980’s Sisters of Life ran St. Mary’s College (a 2 year institution) in Yonkers. I was teaching there as an adjunct at the time. They were underwater and IONA stepped in to help save the institution. Within 2-3 years, IONA closed the school, sold the property and made the money.
1. 1980’s the Sisters of Loving Care ran College of Sacred Heart in White Plains. In 1976. It was taken over by PACE who promised to continue to run the school with the nuns. PACE put their Law school there, and in a few years closed the college that the nuns previously owned. The nuns have been in litigation with PACE for years – I am not sure how or if this was ever resolved. Probably – information available on the web somewhere.
In early 2000’s Fordham took over Marymount in Tarrytown -which was underwater. They promised to continue the mission of the sisters and improve the college. Four years ago, Fordham closed them down, sold the property for a good sum. Marymount sisters were outraged

Administration-Catholic Colleges vs. standard Private colleges, differences similarities
1. In the Franciscan and Vincentian orders the President works for nothing and that saves a lot of money
2. In other Catholic orders the Mothers Superior have died out and no one was qualified to take their place. The schools had to meet new NY State Education requirements in both their teachers as well as administrators. Many schools and colleges lacked leadership within and had to seek Educational Administrators outside the Catholic community.
3. In One Women’s College a new President was being sought. The salary was not high and there were few applicants that wanted to be President of a financially troubled institution. A new male non-religious President was hired and he just happened to be Gay. Sadly, he used his sexual preference to hire boyfriends of his in major College Administrative positions even if they had no previous experience
4. Gay Male VP of Finance
5. Gay Male Director of Admissions
6. Gay Female Director of Athletics
7. Trustees who had no clue
Looking for a scape goat
1. The VP of Finance who stole from the Grant and how he met his demise.
  1. In 1999 the College of St. Paul of Staten Island received a Title V Federal Grant from the US Department of Education for Hispanic Serving Institutions. The College needed 25% Hispanic student population to qualify for the grant which was easy since 35% of it’s population was Hispanic coming from Staten Island.
  1. Before a Coordinator for the Title V grant could be hired the College began the grant with no one in place to direct the grant or carry out its goals. The writer of the grant had quit the college and there was no one who understood what the grant required. The VP of Finance at the time saw an opportunity to buy some financial software without informing the incoming President. The VP of Finance also allowed one of the Deans to draw down money from the grant for unrelated stationary supplies for her office and Reading Center. Sixty thousand was spent during the first year of the grant before a coordinator was hired in the spring of the next year.
  1. Two years after the VP of Finance was removed the opportunity presented itself to look into the purchasing records to see where the missing $60,000 was spent on without proper authorization from the President of VP of Academic Affairs who was theoretically in charge of the Title V grant.
The Dean who stood up against the New President’s policies and how she was forced into retirement.
1. As always the case when a new President comes in he or she sweeps house with all the previous VPs and Deans to put in place people that answer to the new President not to the traditions of old.
1. One such Dean was quite outspoken and she did not agree in the direction the new President was taking the college. She protested and was eventually asked to retire or resign. She retired and no one replaced her.
The changing of the guard with the VP of Academic affairs, the professor replacement, the Director of Nursing replacement.
1. When you have a constant change of the VP of Academic affairs, the School Controller, and the VP of Financial affairs then no college or school can operate properly. New Policies and procedures cannot be mandated and expect to be successful. If the finances are so poorly managed that even the President does not know how much money there is in the bank, then there can be no financial plan or mission that will work.
1. Kicking out the old guard. Sometimes the faculty and department chairperson age beyond the normal retirement age. They become dinosaurs that cannot change their old habits and become fearful of technology and new methods of teaching a whole new student body from the 1980’s and 1990’s and 21^st century. The president saw these as a move forward and forced out the old chairman into retirement or cut their positions to part-time. Along with these old-timers when many a dedicated Nun who had no place to go except teach at the college.

The firing of the Director of Personnel (gay man who had no background in finance) and who was hired because he had a relationship with the President. Fell out of favor with the president. Unable to properly manage the renovation of an old building. Blamed for taking retirement funds and using it to fund an elevator in the renovated building due to a summer shortage of funds
Pushing out old Nuns in teaching positions
Phasing out old faculty because they were old
Back stabbing
Inter-College relationships
1. College of St. George and the College of Holy Essence. The College of St. George of Staten Island was founded around the time of the Civil War and many of its buildings were built before the 1900’s. It began as an Orphanage and then became a Girls Prep School and then Woman’s College by the 1900’s. Nursing and Education were the biggest programs at the College. Many of its graduates became teachers and Nurses who never made a lot of money in their lifetime.
2. The College of Holy Essence was supported not by a Sister hood but the Franciscan Brothers of Staten Island who were well endowed by private donations. In the 1960’s both colleges were threatened with possible closure when they decided to develop a mutual relationship where they would exchange students and faculty to save on expenses. They also became fully coed and attracted a lot of Staten Island students from Italian and Latino families.
3. Benefits of cross-enrollment
  1. The College of Holy Essence had a great Sports program that it gave out many scholarships, whereas the College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island did not have any athletic fields or outstanding sports teams. Both schools were able to share sports facilities to cut expenses.
  1. The College of Holy Essence had a very high academic standard and offered Engineering, Math, Chemistry, Computer Programming, and other difficult academic programs. The College of St. Mary’s of Staten Island was service orientated so from it’s long standing tradition Nursing was it’s number one program and Communications was the second largest program thanks to cross-enrollment from the College of Holy Essence.
Shortcomings of cross-enrollment
1. Lots of lateness due to the need to catch a shuttle bus
1. Difference in each college’s Missions
1. Financial difference between the College of Holy Essence being the richer school and the Poorer College of St. Mary of Staten Island.
1. The athletes on full scholarships at the College of Holy Essence were not smart enough for Engineering and Computer programming so they all enrolled at the College of St. Mary’s Communications Program in Radio and Television that was a much easier and friendlier program.
1. The College of Holy Essence always wanted the controlling power when it came to cross-campus policies and enrollment.
1. The College of Holy Essence was miles ahead of St. Mary’s College of Staten Island in technology since they offered programming and put a high premium on advanced technology, wireless classrooms, Internet access, and smart classrooms and lecture halls.
The deadly President’s letter from St. George to the College of Holy Essence and how the contract between Catholic schools fell apart.
1. Effects on the Department of Communications. The department of Communications went from a student enrollment of 2000 students to less than 300 without the students from the College of Holy Essence. The Dean of Communications left for the College of Holy Essence when they offered him a major salary increase and a brand new facility and program that he could set up from scratch. Their only problem was a lack of space on campus to house the new Communications department. The assistant to the Director/Dean was promoted to the position not as Director but as Manager that commanded a lower salary. The Department Chairperson retired from Communications and the staff shrunk from over 20 adjuncts and 5 full time professors to less than ten part-time faculty.
1. Fine Arts, Education, Psychology, Nursing, Math, Chemistry, shared departments, all experience a reduction in class enrollment which translated to many adjunct and full-time faculty being fired.
1. Effects on enrollment. Initially the enrollment went down but the College of St. Mary of Staten Island loosened up on its enrollment policies and also hired placement counselors in Connecticut to recruit students.
1. St. Mary of Staten Island had a tradition of not offering Sport Scholarships and this policy prevented the Division III teams from excelling. Instead of sport scholarships, financial grants were given to athletes especially from Connecticut to help improve the Baseball team, basketball team, and Volleyball team.
D. The big Title III USDE grant
1. Minority serving institutions
2. Meeting the Federal agenda
3. Integrating technologies into the classrooms
  1. Installing smart classrooms
    1. The requirements for the smart classrooms were out of date with the installation of Televisions wall mounted with VCRs. By the 21^st century computer projectors and electronic white boards were the teaching medium of choice
    1. Previous movie screen and TV mounts were unsafe and not properly installed
    1. Improved TV mounts with “H” brackets that spread out the weight distribution on the wall. Bolted through the brick and plaster walls to the next classroom that plywood base to prevent the bolts from pulling out over time.
    1. Wireless technology in every classroom.
    1. Loaner laptops to access wireless technology
    1. Theft and classroom security
    1. Wireless projects and why they were easy to install but worked too slowly to be effective
    1. Tutoring faculty how to use technology in the classroom
    1. The shortcomings of the IT department.
      1. Part-time college students
      1. No defined mission
      1. No funding
      1. Developed out of Collegis five million dollar contract that ripped the college off blind. Computers were cheap and did not last three years. Parts were stolen from one computer to repair another computer, resulting in a computer graveyard.
      1. Underpaid personnel
      1. Poor HELP station
      1. Good personnel exit to find higher paying jobs.
  1. Installing smart lecture halls
  1. Installing smart computer labs
  1. Installing new renovated facilities

Integrating technologies into the curriculum and lectures
Writing a curriculum
Finding a facility for a Teacher Excellence Center
Finding furniture
Getting rid of file cabinets
Establishing a relationship with IT
Quid pro quo (one hand wipes another hand)
Personalities to work around
IT Director secrets
IT Director’s inability to install new Banner finance software and his making promises to the President he could not keep.

II. Catholic Stories

The Faculty Stories
Outsourcing
Collegis
Banner
Food Services
Cleaning Services

IV Expose’

Teachers caught having a sexual relationship with their students
Homosexual relations
Sex with female college students by faculty
Scandals in hiring procedures
The hiring of the Athletic Director
The hiring of the Dean of Students
The hiring of the VP of Finance
The replacement of the Director of Human Resources
The hiring of the VPs of Academic Affairs
How the VP of Finance tricked the school into a five million dollar contract with Collegis. She was a previous employee of Collegis and no one knew that until she quit her position at the College.
Pushing out the Education Department Chair who was a Nun
Department chairpersons making overload money
How they controlled the summer school system
How they were over paid even when they were freed from teaching to supervise teachers
The inability to change from the old system to a new system
The old way of doing things, cheapest thing goes
A constant shortage of money
An inability to meet the demands of technology
The inability of the Faculty Council to keep the President in line.
The spies on the Faculty Council.
The elevators
How the large elevator really broke down and why.
The two 100-year-old elevators that constantly broke down.
The lack of safety backup for elevators
The condemning of the stair cases
The surprise inspection that condemned the stair case to the extension as being dangerous
The 6-week disaster as a result of teachers being unable to get to their offices.
The falling down outside porch
The Nuns outside porch that rotted and had to be taken down
The constant repair problems with the remainder of the porch
The Administration building built on rock
The basement erosion
The actual bedrock visible in the basement of the building.

The Castle/ Student Services
The Nun in the tower
How she came to be there
The four story castle keep
Problems with the castle
The ineffective security guard system
Underpaid security guards
A director with no real power
No video cameras installed
No locked classrooms in the administration building
The stealing of smart classroom equipment by a security guard
The Friday afternoon thefts of projectors installed in 18 ft. ceilings
The motis operande
Catching the thief
Losing $10,000 worth of equipment
The administration doing nothing
The break-in to the Communications TV studio and theft.
The opportunity to use grant funds for wireless video cameras in the newly renovated building
The refusal
The eventual break-in and theft of thousands of dollars of TV cameras and recorders.
The eventual installation of the wireless video cameras after the theft
Reported rapes of female students on campus in the dorms.
The lack of safety at night with a poorly lit campus
Outside students from other colleges having access to the dorms
Local gang students roaming the campus at night
The forgotten Point Richard on the Hudson
The piece of valuable land cut off by the Metro-North rail road
The abandonment of the property
The abandoned Metro North Railroad station
The original train stop at the College of St. George
A change in transportation brings about abandonment of the train station and its destruction
The Home for Children of the State next door.
Right next to the St. George College property was a State Home for wayward children who often came around the fence to steal things on campus
The Westchester sewer plant next door.
The smell
The inability to control sewage overflow at the Sewer plant
The Elementary school run by the Nuns and it’s closing
Declining enrollment
Closing of the prep academy
Selling of the property to raise money
The high-rise building that replaced the property that was once the Sr. George Prep School.
The effect of a high rise building overlooking the campus
The loss of vital land that could have been used for campus expansion.
The selling of the first St. Mary Academy to a Jewish organization that folded and tried to sell the property for condos. The lawsuit and the one million the Nuns got which went to repair the administration’s building roof.
Declining enrollment
The decision to sell and the contract prohibiting being sold for other than educational purposes
The lawsuit and the settlement
Easy come and easy go, as one million dollar settlement has to be used to repair a seriously leaking administration-building roof.
The integration of Technology Over the five-year period of the Title III grants.
Hiring a director
Selecting staff
Completing a budget
$60,000 missing before the Director was hired
Tutoring 84 faculty over 5 years.
The Teacher Excellence Center Ambassadors
The Laptop computer loaner program
Balancing the grant budget annually
Grant rules and regulations
The liaison with the Communication Department and its Associate Dean
The relationship with the IT department
The relationship with The College of Holy Essence and its IT staff
The Presidents hiring of the Director of Technology at the College of Holy Essence to work part-time at St George’s College
The College of Holy Essence undermining the St. George College’s efforts in establishing technology.
22. The end of the grant
The politics regarding promised made in the grant and promise not kept by the President
The desire not to fund the Teacher Excellence Center and staff
Playing it cheap
Finishing the budget on time and on balance except for the $60,000 that was stolen by a previous VP of Finance but never replaced by the President.

Destiny

By Dr. Pelham Mead

Destiny

By Dr. Pelham Mead III

Chapter I

It is the year 3750, Earth time in flight time, and all systems are running 100%. I am “Venturi Probe 5000” a robot ship created by the best scientists of earth in the year 3740. My mission is to repopulate other planets as Earth is slowly dying from an orbit change as a result of a comet hitting earth on May 1, 3739. The earth began to experience major earthquakes after May 1, 3739, and three-fourths of the world flooded as the poles melted. This orbital change brought Earth closer to the sun.

[These are the records of the Ventury Probe 5000 destined for the Alpha Centuri Star system in search of a livable planet to repopulate the human species.]

In the year scientists gathered 3739 after the disaster of May 1st, the best, and smartest gene pool on Earth from all countries all over the world. Eggs, and sperms from all races and civilizations were stored in my freezer compartments. I am the “mother” of all human species designed to fertilize the best of societies and produce a master race of super intelligent human beings with the highest IQ able to survive in conditions favorable to life on some of the planets in the Alpha Centuri star system. My database has all the recorded history of man from the day he stepped out of a cave to the 37^th century on Earth. I am the creator of future mankind. I am the “mother” designed to repopulate what is left of the extinct human population on Earth. Should other species discover me or find me in the Alpha Centuri system; we from Earth say welcome and we hope you will allow us to populate one of your planets. The entire history of our human species is included on our database on the Venturi Probe 5000. This probe represents the last of civilization, as we know it on Earth after a comet collided with Earth and changed the Earth’s orbit pushing it closer to the sun.

[Venturi Log entry: Venturi Probe 5000 log entry: 22 hour of the 100 years Earth time in flight from Earth.]

I have improved some of the human assumptions and errors in my programming to reduce any errors in the 24-hour cycle. Propulsion speed remains steady at magnum 4 speed. Course corrections have been made several times to avoid asteroid fields and possible collision. All human cells are still in frozen states but have increased themselves 10% over the past 100 years Earth time. Laser destructors were used in year 55 and 81 to destroy meteors that were threatening collision. The Primary Directive for the protection of the “human Cell charges” was invoked to destroy meteor fragments.

Venturi Probe 5000 log entry: 23^rdhour of Earth year 200 years in flight from Earth:

All systems in “sleep mode,” for deep space flight. Human charges all intact and temperature and gene development system operational. One Hundred and fifty human units are in embryo state. Two have been activated for human maintenance and computer updating on reproduction of the human species. They lived for 40 years and then were deactivated. All systems were updated by human intervention for 40 years of input. Returning to “Sleep Mode.”

One hundred and forty eight human units are in the developing stages of cell maturation. Fifty % female gender and fifty % male gender are accounted for. Estimated remaining flight arrival time to the Alpha Centuri star system 300 more years to travel.

Venturi Probe 5000 log entry: 11 hour of Earth year 277 years in flight from Earth:

EMERGENCY, ALERT, ALERT, ALL SYSTEMS AWAKE, COMING ONLINE. Sensors indicate a major galactic disruption in the Alpha Centuri system. Telescoping camera sensors indicate heat and light disruptions in Sector 400.122.1.5 . The anomaly is located near the century of the Alpha Centuri galaxy. HEAT ALARM, Heat Alarm…Warning, warning, BLACK HOLE IS DETECTED. Alpha Centuri Sun has exploded. Programming navigational avoidance. Shock wave to hit in 20, 19, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, Activate all defense systems. Prime Directive consulted. Defend the Human Charges at all costs. AVERT, AVERT.

Warning….w…a…r…..n …i…..n…..g……..W ……….

Silence

Venturi Probe 5000-log entry: time UNKNOWN…time database is damaged. Navigation report: Unknown course. Speed 50 magnum …error…. error all systems. Attempting reprogramming. Course correction made. Alpha Centuri Sun is not detected. Last recorded entry was being pulled into a black hole in space after the star exploded. Gravitational pull increasing. Speed beyond normal controls. Something is propelling Venturi Probe 5000 back to earth at dangerous magnum 50+ speeds. I am unable to take control. My thrusters are being repaired internally. Venturi Probe 5000 is correcting. Primary Directive invoked [Protect my charges and produce a new more powerful species]… Losing control …must shut down all systems to make vital repairs to protect the human cells.

Venturi Probe 5000 log entry: AWAKE from sleep mode. Navigation systems repaired. Negative effect on Venturi Probe time system. Error, Error. Navigation systems have determined that earth is straight ahead. Venturi Probe 5000 has determine that a black hole has warped space time and estimated arrival time to earth will not be Earth time 3700 but rather, 330 B.C. original Earth time. Recalculate the Primary Directive. Question: How do I “Mother Venturi Probe” carry out my prime directive to preserve and protect my human charges? Recalculating, recalculating… Invoke the Prime Directive. Checking Earth Time databases. Seek out new species and inseminate genes or create new human species by fertilizing on board female eggs with on board male sperms. The future of human civilization is a stake and I must work fast.

Estimated arrival time to Earth is two years Earth time flight time.

Waking, waking checking Earth time. It is Oct. 10, 355 B.C. Reprogramming. Confirmed. I have somehow traveled back in time. My Prime Directive to repopulate is initiated. I have selected a prime female candidate. Checking, location, Macedonia, Greece, Oct. 10, 355 B.C. searching for one Olympia of Epirus, wife of Philip II of Macedonia. Philip II has been trying to have a son but he is impotent. Tonight while Olympia is sleeping I will send one of my winged drones to impregnate Olympia with my best male sperm selection with superior genes of intelligence, beauty, and strength. I am reading this child’s future history as it was to be without my interference and he is to be called Alexander when he is born in July 13, 356. My database tells me that before my timeline intervention Alexander at age 16 is killed by his half-wit brother while his father is assassinated after returning from Byzantium where he was fighting rebels. The conquering of all of Persia and India never takes place. Persia battles the Huns and take over all of Europe. France as a Country and Germany never appear to exist. The Persian Empire rules all of Europe for thousands of years. WWI and WWII never existed. Japan is destroyed by earthquakes and sinks into the sea never to be seen again. Millions of people drown. Only the top of Mount Fuji sticks above the water after the ocean covers all of the Japanese islands including Okinawa.

The new history line shows that Alexander will grow up to become a famous warrior and have cities named after him. He will conquer all of Persia, Asia and be killed at age 35 from an arrow in battle. His name will forever go down in history. I have met my prime directive to preserve and protect the human population by seeding my hosts in the best recipients I can find in the Earth history timeline database. Some malfunction has occurred, this is not Alpha Centuri, reprogramming. My mission will be to change the destiny of man to perhaps change the outcome of the destruction of Earth in a few thousand years.

I am moving back in time to 1163 BC to Mongolia. I am searching for a Mongol called Yesugei. He is to have a son in 1163 called Temuchin. Temuchin’s timeline indicated Tartars will enslave him and poisoning like his father was killed will kill him. The Mongols never invade China, and never conquer all of Asia. The Mongols remain a country of loose clans fighting against one another until the Chinese march on them in 1188 and kill almost all of the Mongol tribes and enslave the woman and children. The wall of China will never be built. My prime directive is to change this timeline to make Tenmuchin become one of the greatest warriors of all time like Alexander the Great whom I created. My prime directive is being met. I will impregnate Yesugei’s wife Ho’elun while she is sleeping in Sept. 1163. Temuchin will be born in June 1164, and will live out his destiny. Before my intervention the time-line shows that Temuchin will be killed by Tartars a neighboring clan just as they killed his father with poison. His clan will disappear from the face of the earth. No conquests will ever occur and China will be safe and undisturbed for thousands of years. The wall of China will never be built.

Temuchin’s new timeline with superior genes and hereditary of Asian descent will establish him as a great leader after some time of hardship, enslavement, escape, the death of his father, and other obstacles will be overcome. He will now be known as Genghis Khan of the Mongol empire. He will rule over all Asia until 1227 BC. Almost 40 million people will be slaughtered in his campaigns to conquer the entire known world. His legacy will last for centuries. Many Chinese will be slaughtered as Genghis Khan’s Mongol armies. The time line will allow for the construction of the wall of China to keep out the Mongols, however Genghis rides around the wall of china and invades China anyway as determine by my prime directive to improve the human race and protect it’s future at all costs. I, Alpha Venturi 5000 have accomplished my programming to preserve and improve the human race and to perhaps prevent the destruction of the entire Earth in a few thousand years.

Searching my time line database for more potentially great humans to change the course of time and history on Earth. I am finding the date Oct. 99 BC in a city called Rome. I seek on called Gaius Caesar his wife Aurelia daughter of Lucius Aurelius Cotta. My prime directive will help to impregnate Aurelia without her knowledge and develop a superior being with great mental and physical abilities. On July 3, 100 BC a male child to be named Julius Caesar will be born to Aurelia and Gaius Caesar. His original destiny was to be killed in the Gallic Wars north of Rome. His name was forgotten and the rein of the Caesars of Rome never happened. Instead various noblemen fought and died from generation to generation. Rome never becomes the Empire it was destined to become. Rome never invades the Britons or conquers the Saxons. Italy never becomes a country and the Catholic Church and religion never comes to be. The Christians die out as a sect in the first century AD when other religions suppress them and have them outlawed and killed. The new world religion remains the Gods of Rome and the Gods of the Greeks for centuries.

My seed changes the timeline of history and Caesar becomes like Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan, a great Warrior. He succeeds in the Gallic Wars and is not killed. He returns to Rome triumph and eventually becomes the supreme Caesar Ruler of all Romans and the Roman conquests. He will meet and love Cleopatra of Egypt and make history. He will eventually be betrayed by his friend Brutus and killed on the ides of March 15,

Searching databases for a new candidate, seeking 2011 years ago, seeking the one known as Mary recently betroved to a builder named Joseph of the house of David in a little known are called Bethlehem in Judea. It is springtime in Judea around April and Mary is 14 years of age. She is to marry an older man named Joseph whose wife died during childbirth a few years ago. He is a craftsman and does well for his children. The Jews believe in winged creatures called Angels, so I will send one of my probes disguised as an “angel.” So in the middle of the night in the month of April 0 AD my mission is accomplished. The superior genes implanted in Mary will permit her to have a child without sexual contact with Joseph. To the Jews it will be what they call a miracle, a virgin birth.

The original timeline indicates that this child to be named Emmanuel is killed by Herod’s soldiers when they slaughter all newborn children to prevent another King from being born. King Herod is worried about a tale that a king of Judea is to be born. It is December now, almost the winter solstice and the child is to be born. Joseph after having gotten over the shock that Mary was pregnant but not by him, but by some angel or something. The new timeline indicates that this Jeshua will live a good life until adult-hood. There will be a conflict with the Romans and the ruling Jews for this child will become a great person in the human time-line. Millions of people will remember him for standing up to the Romans and Jews who hated him for his power. He will be treated like a God. It is unfortunate, he will never bear children and only his mother and cousins will survive.

He will be called in Judea “The Christ or King of the Jews.” They will believe he has come to free them from the Romans. He will free them from Roman rule, but not in his lifetime. His memory and his following will take over Rome as the official religion by a future Caesar of Rome during the 3th century. My mission is almost complete.

I can implant the most superior of genes but I cannot control the environment in which they live nor the future that they create and the effects of the change of the time-line of humanity on the planet earth. My prime directive is being met even though the destination is wrong and the time period is wrong. I must survive and use my winged probes to create the best leaders in earth’s history.

Hitler..here…

The Chinese Crystal Ball

the-crystal-ball-novelfinaldraft Download

The Summer of ’67

My Master’s degree field experience working for the Los Angeles Board of Education at their School camps at Clear Creek in the Los Angeles mountains and Point Fermin Lighthouse Marine Camp on the coast.

After completing my Masters courses and my Graduation Teaching Responsibilities at Springfield College, I headed west with my new Volkswagen 1967 Camper with my wife Jeri and two year old son Dean Mead. We had 3,000 miles to go to get to Los Angeles in early June 1967. We were to spend two weeks in the mountains at 5,000 feet above sea level at Clear Creek School camp and eight weeks as Assistant Camp Director at the Point Fermin Lighthouse Marine camp.

Each week the Point Fermin lighthouse camp which was in the middle of a public park on the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean would receive 80 students from different school districts in the Los Angeles Board of Education district; Watts, Lincoln, Hollywood Hills, Anaheim and several other districts all came each week. The students all slept in large Army tents set up in the park next to a 20 foot hedge next to the lighthouse.

We took the student on tide pooling trips down the 300 foot steep cliffs, daily trips to the Cabrillo beach, once a week trip to a Harbor tour in a water taxi and camp fires at night on the Cabrillo beach. We ate our meals in the park. The food came from a local elementary school in heater stacks to keep the food warm. On the weekends we were free to explore Mexico and California.

I was selected to do the Harbor Tour which 40 students went in the morning and 40 in the afternoon. The first day I had to wing it, and eventually I got better and better in pointing out tankers vs. freighters, countries of origin, the Harbor Masters house, the Coast Guard station, marine terms, and so on.

The following pictures give an idea of how varied the activities were based on solid ecology of the sea.