Palm Beach Community College - Galleon Yearbook (Lake Worth, FL)

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d xpansions The student body has been view- ing the progression of Phase 3 of the Criminal Justice building for the last few months. The building is being erected east of the present Criminal Justice building and should be com- pleted in early April. It will provide a gym for self-defense instruction, a classroom for automobile search, clo- sed circuit televisions and cameras, and locker rooms and showers for men and women. The Criminal Justice building so far, has been the only major project that the college has started so far, but come the first of the year we should see construction getting under way. The first will be the Allied Health building, to be located south of the Technical building. This three story complex will have a large am- phitheater seating 250-300 people. The same floor will also include clas- srooms, conference rooms, and a con- ICLIFK siderable amount of faculty office area. The second floor will have an audio-visual area and two nursing lab- oratories, one of which will be a sim- ulated hospital floor. It will have rooms, beds, and nurse stations just like a hospital but without the pa- tients. The third floor will be ded- icated to occupational therapy, and will include workshops for ceramics, woodworking, weaving, ect. Along with the start of the Allied Health building, construction will be- gin on handball courts south and east of the gym. The college is hoping for twelve courts, but will build as many as the budget will allow. They are also hoping to have the courts lit for the night student ' s benefit. The col- lege will also be expanding the parking lot north of the Science building, get- ting rid of the grass and paving it closer to the building. This will provide much needed parking spaces. The first of the year will bring the construction of elevators for the Hu- manities and Social Science buildings. Hopefully, the college will beable to supply each building with one, but if the budget is not able to supply mon- ey for both, then the Humanities buil- ding will have more priority. Plans for the college pool are await- ing state funding. The most likely lo- cation for the pool will be east of the exit road to 6th Avenue. The comple- tion of 6th Avenue has been announ- ced for January 1, which will provide an easier approach to 1-95, and the new traffic light will furnish the col- lege with a safer and quicker exit. Ruth Whitten

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)C Lll K! If you ' re a daytime worker, but would like to attend college, then you ' re in luck. P.B.J.C. is offer- ing evening classes. Although this is no- thing new, it is something many students know little about. For example, did you realize day students must have their transcripts, G.E.D. scores etc. submitted, along with their application, and wait for a letter of acceptance before they can even register for classes? Evening students come in, fillout an applica- tion, and can register the same night. Transcripts and other forms must be received by the Registrars office before the end of the semester. Failure to turn these in will result in the students name being placed on the delinquent list. This will stop him her from registering for the following te- rm, grades will be withheld, and a hold is placed on all the students records. Being placed on this list could also re- sult from having unpaid traffic fines, library fees, or tuition, or having an unsigned audit form. Day students have an application Night C lass deadline of approximately one month before classes, while evening students applications are accepted up to the day before classes begin. Classes offered to evening students are the same ones available during the day, except for specialized programs with clinical courses such as nursing and dental hygiene. In the evening, workshops, clinics, and non-credit classes known as con- tinuing education are also given. Th- ese classes are taken for personal im- provement, job improvement, or to train you in a field. Each class generally meets once a week for three hours and each is equiv- alent to three daytime class sessions. Four absences constitutes 25% of class meetings and makes one eligible for her F . Counselors are available Monday thru Th- ursday from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m., but are also present during the day. Evening classes are also offered at North, So- uth, and Glades campuses. The Glades campus may not have a few of the courses available at the ot- due to lack of demand. ones New evening students may re- gister during pre-scheduling, a privi- ledge not available to new day stu- dents. The Central, North, and Glades campuses operate under the semester system but the South campus also divides some of its courses into quar- ters. Dual Enrollment is another type of evening class. High school students may attend one or two evening classes while attending their regular school during the day. The major eligibility requirements are: 1) a letter of appro- val from the high school principal. 2) at least two years of high sch- ool with ten hours above the ninth grade. Corrine Plante

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)C LIFK! Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students to- day. This is a sign that the college life isn ' t an easy one to handle. With all its hectic schedules, tests, home- work, jobs and home life, how many students can cope with these frus- trations and stresses on their own? Many can ' t so they turn to some kind of drug for help. Often it ' s a pre- scribed drug, but is this the answer? Dr. Bortnick, an assistant professor in the Mental Health Technology pro- gram here at Palm Beach Junior Col- lege, doesn ' t think so. He feels that our society is too drug dependent. There are drugs to wake up a person, to put him to sleep, to relax him, etc. People get the idea that they can ' t control their feelings or behavior; they need a chemical to do it. That is why Valium is the most widely pre- scribed drug in the world. People get uptight so they take it to relax. They attempt to treat a psycholo- gical problem with medicine. It ' s a non-medical problem but they ' re using a chemical to treat it. This is what he considers a chemical cop- out. You can teach yourself to relax by what is called muscle relaxation. People can put themselves into a very ( Mental Health deep, pleasant state of relaxation with- out a chemical. In his classes, he stresses the behavioral approach; peo- ple can learn to alter their behavior to deal with stress so they don ' t need medicine. They don ' t need to depend on a pill or a drink. The change can be learned just as you can learn to do anything. But like anything else it takes practice. Dr. Bortnick believes that things and people don ' t upset us; we upset ourselves by the way we react to a situation. Some people might say that they can ' t help overreacting, it runs in their family. This is just an excuse the person has put into their mind. Dr. Bortnick tries to get people to recognize the irrational messages they are sending themselves and to change them, to challenge them. This is the main point of taking the Mental Hea- lth Technology (MHT) program to get the education and training. The MHT program has been at JC for about five years now, and there are about 50 full-time students. Their curriculum deals more with the psy- chological aspects of emotional pro- blems than the medical aspects. They learn about human behavior, and what techniques there are for helping peo- ple to change. They are taught how to conduct interviews, how to lead group sessions and how to give individual counseling. These students learn what psychotherapy is all about and are trained to work in mental health clinics, hospitals, schools and in alco- holism and drug abuse treatment fa- cilities. All of them work under the supervision or direction of a psycho- logist, social worker, or other trained personnel. The Mental Health Tech- nology two year program has the curriculum that provides both educa- tional information and actual in-ser- vice training for the student to help others and to cope with their own human behavior. Ruth Whitten