Cowley College - Tiger Daze Yearbook (Arkansas City, KS)

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,a,,V. ,ws sr.. S., , DEEP IN THOUGHT - Sharon Yar- brough, speech and drama instructor, concentrates on planning the next day's class activities. fPhoto by David Bartonl READ SPEED - Part of Margaret Wheeler's skill development course con- sisted of a program in which the reading comprehension of students was measured. fPhoto by David Bartonl MAKING PROGRESS - A student uses a machine that allows him to read one line at a time in an attempt to sharpen his reading skills. fPhoto by David Barton, 22 ACADEMICS !English, Speech xx . .. XX ,zip ,S-ask ' S -ziszx .. :W X l .X Sn. X- 1 -X X-X1 f 1 kg.. A f f i ' ff: al ' rw. X. .QQ -5 i 4 ' xx: ' X es X A XR 6 X + w fx . 1- S sg :X S f 'Y X X S 0 n N fiih..- .Qvf?Sfi. E' x A ' S xx 3 ,Q X si, ' Mu

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Resources Center provides data by Ann Hollenback The Renn Memorial Library and Research Center saw many im- provements this year, strengthening its image of offering more than lust books to the students. According to Ken Campbell, media technician, it wasn't long ago that the library was housed in the lower level of Galle-Johnson Hall. There wasn't even a media cen- ter, Campbell said. There was iust a small collection of books and magazines. The services are better now. The library has more than 20,000 books and 230 periodicals. Betty Mar- tin, director of the Learning Resour- ces Center, further improved the ser- vices offered this year through the purchase of a Com-Reader. The machine locates books for borrowing from maior libraries across the state. According to Sally Forrest, library assistant, the system worked well during its first year at the college. If there were magazines or books we didn't have, we could borrow them from other libraries, Forrest said. Magazine articles were usually Xeroxed, and there wasn't a lona wait. The system was a big help. Improving the Research Center has been a continuing goal for the librarians. The Research Center is the heart of the campus, Martin said. It seems that every class this year had an in-library assignment or term paper. Students needed to feel like they could come here. We're in the in- formation business. Foreign students also had the op- portunity to find special help in the library. English as a second language was offered this year through the ESL program in the Learning Skills Lab, Martin said. lt was a class for people in the community who wanted to im-. prove their English skilIs. With the new equipment and ser- vices, the library offered greater op- portunities for all students. ACADEMlCS!Learning Resources Center 21

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Students show better attitudes in concrete English, speech by Ann Hollenback Themes, organization, context... These phrases are on the minds of many students when they enroll in English courses. And that's what they found by taking the courses in speech, freshman English, and literature that were offered this year. Developmental and Rapid Readingclasses were also available for students who wanted additional lab work. This year, students were allowed to take English literature to fulfill their literature requirements. Instructor Margaret Wheeler discussed the outline of the class. Basically it was a survey of major authors and works in English literature, Wheeler said. The first semester dealt with the older periods and ancient authors. In the second term, we started with romantic authors and came up through modern times. According to Wheeler, the course was not all book-learning. lf a good play was being staged somewhere in the area, the class tried to attend. We also used visual films and recordings to hear different presen- tations, she said. I tried to make it enioyable and not too technical, so people wouldn't feel the class was something they had to do. Basic English courses usually have high enrollments because students are required to take them. Even though enrollment dropped slightly this year, the classes weren't affected much. Elaine Brown, English in- structor, said one reason for that was the students. Personally, I had a lot of students this year who were serious about the courses, Brown said. I had good writers, so I enioyed the courses. She feels it is important that students learn to write well, so themes were an important part of her curriculum. The students were helped ex- tensively, she said. They made alot of progress. I felt we had an especially strong freshman English program, and they should have no trouble transferring. Speech instructor Sharon Yar- brough also noticed changes for the better among her students. The students appeared to have a positive attitude, she said. GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS - Angela McCrary uses a diagram to illustrate a point in speech class. iPhoto by David Bartonj SIDE BY SIDE - Two students take ad- vantage of the peace and quiet of the Learning Skills Lab to improve their reading levels. iPhoto by David Bartonl ACADEMICS!English, Speech 23