Lansing Community College (LCC) was established in 1957 in
Lansing, Michigan and it is one of the most comprehensive colleges focused upon
offering learning opportunities in four areas: career and workforce
development, general education, developmental education, and personal
enrichment. The college is generally recognized by educators and other
interested parties as a local, state, national, and international leader in
forging educational partnerships with business, industry, and government to
better meet the needs of an ever changing, technologically savvy and
multicultural world -wide marketplace.
I teach WRIT 121: Composition I at LCC and for those of you who may be
unaware of my connection with this institution, I want to briefly identify some
of the reflective, collaborative communities that we have at the college which
operate in conjunction with our traditional classroom communities to support
the student learning process and to make all of us richer, more diverse in our
outlooks and, by implication, much more creative.
There is,
to begin with, the LCC Library on the 2nd and 3rd Floors of the Technology
& Learning Center (TLC) Building on the main campus. The focus of the
collection is on introductory works and materials that supplement the college
curriculum and present a general survey, with an emphasis on works aimed at
lower division undergraduates. The library collection reflects multiple formats
that maximize access to content and address the needs of different learning
styles and naturally, given the increasing reliance on technology and the World
Wide Web in the 21st century, emphasis is placed on electronic resources such
as e-books which can be accessed on and off campus. In all cases, the LCC library fosters
diversity and critical thinking.
Second, there is the Writing Center in the Arts and Sciences Building,
which adjoins the TLC Center. The
Writing Center is headed by one full-time LCC employee, who is supported by a
staff of writing assistants and tutors.
The Writing Center is open every week day from 9 AM to 800 PM, 10 AM- 6
PM on Saturday, and the Center schedules appointments for those students who
prefer this, or else, students are free to walk in at any time and they are
assisted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The Writing Center is committed to offering advice and instruction on
any writing assignment; general English essays in the literature and writing
classes; essays in psychology, history, or sociology, and even lab reports for
physics and science classes. It is a
primary directive among the members of the writing staff that they do not
preempt the philosophy or teaching of individual instructors; they are aware
that they are a support system and are not meant to serve as actual course instructors
or to offer advice or instruction that might contradict what a given course
instructor might require. The goal of the Writing Center is to work in harmony
with the faculty to ensure that all students can participate fully and equably
in achieving the educational outcomes that they desire.
A third
collaborative resource that I have, as yet, never utilized but which I am
thinking about using in the future is The Center for Transitional Learning,
which offers a series of free classes in English for Speakers of Other
Languages (ESOL). ESOL classes can be
scheduled to run concurrently with regular LCC classes and they include basic,
intermediate, and high intermediate reading, speaking, writing, and grammar
skills; there are also classes on listening, note taking and
communication. The ESOL classes serve as
a bridge between ESL students who may be struggling to improve their written
and communication skills and the WRIT 121 & 122 classes, and they offer
a judgement free, respecting attitude towards learners of all types and levels
of development. This is, of course, as
it should be. For indeed, LCC is
committed to encouraging full engagement of its students in a constantly
changing, global environment.
JLS
