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

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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

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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 era mi cs The popularity of the ceramic classes offered at ]C extends beyond the campus and its students. An ever- increasing number of residents in the community also attend the classes here. According to Patrick W. Slatery, the instructor of ceramics, about sev- enty-five percent of the students in his present night class are from the community. Offered in the Art Department are two classes instructing students in the art of ceramics. The basic techniques of wheel throwing and hand building are taught in Ceramics I, with empha- sis on free-form modeling (preformed molds are not used). The technique known as pinch forming is used to make such items as cups and bowls. Starting with a small ball of clay the s tudent pinches it to about one-eighth of an inch thick while forming the desired object. This technique is generally used in making small container shapes. For larger container shapes the student may use the coil method. Beginning with a ball of clay a little larger than was used in making the pinch pots, the clay is rolled, with an outward motion with the hands, into a long rope of clay about a half-inch in diameter. After this is done the stu- dent then makes a disk of clay to use as a base. Attaching the coil to the base it is then wrapped around the disk placing each coil on top of the other until the desired height is reach- ed. This method is very useful for building flower pots and vases. Another basic technique of hand building is slab-forming. Probably the best use of slab-forming would be in building square of geometrically sha- ped pots. The clay is first rolled out to resemble a slab, then trimmed to look like a folded-out-box. The sides are then brought up and welded using the fingers, making it smooth and seamless. In using these techniques students also learn about clay and its forgiv- ing qualities allowing the potter to make recoverable mistakes. Though glazes are not mixed by students in Ceramics I, the student does become familiar with different glazes and their effects. In Ceramics II emphasis is placed on kiln stacking and mixing glazes. The student may now choose his own direction expanding his creative abili- ties as far as he chooses to go using any technique or combination of tech- niques learned in Ceramics !. Attention should also be given to the quality of our ceramics depart- ment and the equipment available to the students. Says Mr. Slatery, The Ceramics Department is as strong an area as any area of the Art Depart- ment. We have ten potter ' s wheels, two electric kilns and the newly aquir- ed use of a thirty cubic foot gas kiln which enables the user to control the mixture of gas and air allowing stu- dents to use a wider variety of glazes and higher firing temperatures than were possible with just the electric kilns. Mr. Slatery added that he hopes in the near future glass-blowing and tech- niques involved in stained-glass will be added on the courses list. Bob Freeman