Every week, “The Patriot” checks all its campus-wide sources to bring you the best of what’s happening at JC.
School days in balance after reclaiming day off
As a result of seven days off this year due to snow and a water main break on campus, March 15 will no longer be a day off for students, and March 16 will follow an “E” day schedule.
With the addition of March 15 and the fact that the Patriot Raffle’s participation did not warrant the possible March 1 holiday, “we’re all square,” said Principal Paul Barker.
However, the problem arises that “Mondays and Fridays have been whacked more than any other days,” according to Barker. Barker added that with the addition of March 1 and 15, “Mondays are recovering some.”
To combat this problem, March 16 will be an “E” day, allowing the school to “have two “E” days that week,” said Barker.
Even with the change, “That won’t entirely get everything in balance, but it’ll make some impact,” Barker said.
In addition, another problem arises as a result of the additional “E” day: “When you do that, you mess with the schedules of teachers that teach part time,” said Barker.
After these changes to the schedule, Barker and the rest of the administration plan to continue to “wait and see about the weather from here on out.”
Barker cites the next “vulnerable day” as Holy Thursday.
Sharepoint sign-in speeds up tech lab progress
In an attempt to go completely paperless, the tech lab will use Sharepoint to sign-in broken laptops.
The idea was proposed by computer and Fine Arts teacher Anne McMahon in an attempt to help the tech office staff “eliminate using the paper system because it’s cumbersome to write everything down and then transfer it to the database.”
Students now log onto Sharepoint on a computer in the tech office and document information about their broken computer. From there, those who work in the tech office can sort by username, date, year of graduation, among other options, to see if patterns are developing.
Although students cannot see the documented information view, from the link bar on the teachers’ web portal page on Sharepoint, they can access a calendar that lists when their laptops will be ready to be picked up. Students’ names are taken off of the calendar once they pick up their computers.
”There have been a few little bugs we had to work out, but so far, it’s working great,” said McMahon.
The site has been “really well received,” said help desk assistant Jane Fogarty. “We’re really thrilled with this. It’s a step in the right direction considering we are technology. It’s the way of the future.”
Services offer benefits for alumni
In an attempt to maintain close contact with graduates, efforts have been made to “reach out in ways that are meaningful to alumni,” said President Richard O’Hara, including through social events, career networking, and technology.
To organize more events, as well as connected alumni, the Alumni Association was created. It consists of “a very strong team of alumni volunteers, creating a number of committees that deal with different aspects of the alumni community,” said O’Hara.
In addition, Director of Alumni Relations Sue Greig runs a “career networking” database to help alums. “It can be used for alumni who are looking for jobs and want to know if somebody in the John Carroll family can help them, either by mentoring them or knowing a job they can interview for,” O’Hara said about its role.
In every e-newsletter, there is a note telling alums to contact Greig, “whether they want to be involved in offering a position or are looking for one,” said O’Hara, who added that he would “like to expand this” to serve more alumni.
Such a feature has been utilized recently, according to O’Hara, when an alumnus had a position open up in his law firm and contacted JC to give first preference to any alum that may be searching for a job.
In addition, Greig hopes to utilize ways to help “alumni to promote their businesses” by offering discounts to other JC alumni. For example, an alumnus who works as a salesman at the Arena Club recently told Greig about his offer of no enrollment fee for JC alums hoping to join the club.
JC is also making use of modern technology to reach out to and connect with alums. “The alumni Facebook site helps get word out much better than more traditional forms of communication. We also keep alumni informed through ‘Connections’ [the alumni magazine] and an email newsletter. [We try to] engage them; keep them feeling connected and aware of what’s going on at John Carroll,” said O’Hara.
He added, “I see it as a big part of my role to establish my own relationship with as many as alumni as possible and tell them the story of John Carroll and what we’re trying to accomplish here.”