Morals

Summary of Event

On Friday, October 28th, in Mohawk College’s Brantford campus, a town hall “One Big Idea” event took place. The students of the Brantford campus attended the event to voice their opinions to a panel of Mohawk College staff on various issues regarding the school. Representatives of some of the classes presented their “Big Idea” to the panel, and the panel responded with solutions or compromises.

Background

The students got together in their Active Citizen class and brainstormed a few of their issues with the college, then developed possible solutions to pose to the panel at the town hall. The main topics of discussion for the Law and Security/Police Foundations classes were: scheduling, price of parking, price of food in the cafeteria, the lack of a running track, the equipment in our gym, making CPR and First Aid available to students, pass/fail issues, finance concerns, employing students as security officers, and lack of events at the Brantford campus. The Graphic Design students spoke about software issues, printing issues, the lack of creative leeway they have, as well as the lack of graphic art displayed throughout the school, and co-op options.

Event

The first group to present their ideas to the panel was Andrew and Jessica from LASA 53. Their topic of concern was the current running area. Basically they gave many positive outcomes to building a new track where students, teachers, as well as outside people in the community such as police officers can utilize. The Chair responded with suggestions of a major project in the next few years that the students may be able to participate in. Dennis Campbell and the Executive Dean also shared the same positive feeling towards this project. Don Vail said he would approach the Police Service with the idea and propose that their officers train on our new track. Deborah said she would bring the track project up on Senior Leadership day.

Allan Poff and a fellow classmate from LASA 43 brought forth concerns about the current equipment in our gym at Brantford, comparing it to Fennel’s much more adequate facility. They proposed a brand new facility be built, which would in turn create jobs, and to fund it they felt it should be opened to the public. Dennis Campbell felt that we should maximize our current gym rather than contrasting an entire new building. Karen, in management of student life stated that in the past three years they have been bettering the gym and will continue doing so. The panel also felt that the degree of usage should be looked at for the proposed facility as well as the current one

Jeff Rosnick from Police Foundations presented to the panel a suggestion of holding CPR and First Aid Certificates, Martial Arts training, and math training integrating into the program. The argument was that all of us as future law enforcement officers could greatly benefit from these certificates, and that we in fact must possess the First Aid CPR when it’s time to apply to a police force. Don Vail responded positively to these requests and that the martial arts could be great for extra circular activities. The CPR and First Aid is available in the 3rd year, however I believe he said that they are looking into making this certificate available to the first two years as well.

Nick Lawson from our class, PF23 spoke about the many scheduling issues we have at Mohawk College. Some students would prefer the individual class selection similar to university, rather than the current block system that comes along with unwanted class times and lengthy breaks between classes.