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An Accurate Name for a College

Posted by Howard Denson III on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 3:19:25 PM
An Accurate Name for a College
 
By HOWARD DENSON
 
Recent stories in the media in the First Coast of Florida have reported on the growth at the University of North Florida and Florida Community College at Jacksonville.  The stories usually say that FCCJ's headcount enrollment is now at 80,000 students, and that seems impressive until you recognize that FJC had that many students 25 years ago.
 
The full-time equivalent enrollment of FCCJ today is about 25,000. If you were figuring FT customers at, say, a grocery store, you might have, say, 20,000 kids coming in to buy a piece of bubblegum for a penny or nickel ($200 to $1,000), but only 5,000 adults spending $150 each for their weekly groceries at the store. Clearly, it's not the customer count that matters, but the customers' total purchase amount.
 
For either higher ed institution, we should not feel that we need to slap up buildings right and left. At UNF, the campus is so packed with rabbit-warren-like buildings that it reminds you of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter tales.
 
If we must build, let's have JOINT buildings used by UNF and FCCJ, as Broward CC has done with the University of South Florida, as Brevard CC has done with its university counterpart.
 
With the four-year programs at FCCJ, we really should look at the name of the college. The administration has said it wants to keep "community" in the name because it expresses an attitude. That's pointless and counterproductive. Folks in our area may remember that FCCJ is now a four-year college, but, when our graduates apply for a job in Richmond, Memphis, or Walla Walla, an employment screening committee may well throw out their job applications, saying, "This clown says he has a four-year degree, but his application says he attended a community college."
 
A name should be accurate, whether it's "First Coast College of Jacksonville" (FCCJ, get it?), "Duval-Nassau College," or whatever. The other CC's in Florida with four-year programs have changed their names to Miami-Dade College, Chipola College, Edison College, St. Petersburg College, and Okaloosa-Walton College.
 
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Frustrations of a Florida Democrat

Posted by Howard Denson III on Saturday, May 31, 2008 10:10:22 PM
I may be experiencing some of the same frustrations of other registered Democrats in Florida. Do you bow to the national party's manipulations or look seriously at the GOP candidate. I respect John McCain, but am wary of the Bushies to whom he may need to make promises. Mainly, however, I am furious with the National Democratic Party's total foul-up of the Florida primary. I am tempted to write in my own name just to spite Howard Dean and crowd.
 
I am told that my vote, one out of over a million, will only be half a vote -- just punishment some would say for Florida's violation of National Party rules for having an early primary.
 
That, of course, is baloney. The anti-Florida Nationals refer to the great value in the "tradition" of having early primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire. Since I have neckties older than that tradition, the position is nonsense. I would argue that a Republican legislature passed the statute for our early election, except that no Democrat opposed it in the Senate and only four opposed it in the House.
 
As long as there is not a national system of, say, four primary elections for all states, it should be up to the voters and legislatures of each state to decide when to have an election.
 
Another irritation is that so few individuals participated in the various caucuses. These are antiquated procedures useful in 19th Century America when voters would hitch up their buggies and meet at the school to figure out for whom to vote. In the 21st Century, it is frustrating when individuals argue that 20,000 caucus voters in a state will equal, and outweigh, the million-plus voters in a major state.
 
A national system of primaries, as proposed by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), should require greater uniformity, at least for the Republican and Democratic parties, from whose ranks the presidency will be decided. Third parties historically have existed to educate voters about particular issues (which are then adopted by the GOP or the Democrats whenever a consensus emerges). They may use dart-games, dice, caucuses, or whatever, and it won't hurt the electorate.
 
Another bogus argument about today's political scene is that it's up to the convention and the delegates to decide who the nominees are. That was true during much of the 20th Century, but in the 1970s and afterwards the shift went more toward the conventions simply rubber-stamping whoever won the primaries. TV networks quit featuring day-long coverage, and then even prime-time coverage, because nothing really happened.
 
This election cycle seems to confirm the validity of Will Rogers' statement: "I'm not a member of an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
 
Howard Denson
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