Since it’s a (relatively) nice day today — well, for January 23 it is, come on! 39 degrees and rain is balmy! — I thought I’d talk about being absent from class. Snow sometimes has something to do with that but there are other things (illness, RL) that contribute also.

Number 1 rule: If you’re sick, stay  home!

Number 1A rule: If your kids are sick, stay home!

Number 1B rule: If it’s dangerous to travel, stay home!

While getting to class is important, YOU are even more important. Keep that in mind.

Now. What to do when you can’t make it to class. You do need to be prepared for the eventuality.

At all times you are to have in your physical possession the following items:

• class syllabus
• class schedule
• instructor contact info
• textbook material(s)

These do you no good if they are in a locker, someone else’s car, your friend’s apartment. You have to have them. All the time.

While you can usually rely on Blackboard for electronic copies, what happens when the power goes out? Hmmm??? You need to be prepared for anything.

Contact your instructor by his/her preferred method. Be clear but don’t go into TMI about what’s going on. “A personal family issue” can cover a multitude of RL events. “My kids are sick and can’t be left alone” is sufficient for most instructors. The general, “I’m sorry but I’m not going to make it to class today” / “Sorry, I missed class yesterday” is usually enough. Then next phrase is ALWAYS: “What will/did I miss?”

If you’re stuck at home, you should know what needs to be done that day / week. Do it. Don’t sluff it off as “maybe they won’t cover this in class.” There ain’t no “Awww… Mary Jane isn’t here today, we won’t do any new material” gonna happen. At worse, you’ve read / worked ahead. Oh, darn.

Do the homework, read the textbook. Send in anything you can electronically. Send in anything else with a friend / neighbor / carrier pigeon.

All of that said, DON’T ABUSE IT. If there are chronic problems in your life (you, kids, SO, parents, dog, etc) then that requires a discussion up front with your instructor before a problem that causes you to miss class occurs. Instructors are entitled to say, “I am sorry to hear that. You are still responsible for being in class and doing the work.” Faculty are not required to make exceptions to attendance requirements for your ongoing personal problems. You had the problem before you started classes, and you chose to sign up for classes. It’s your responsibility to be there.

Go to class. When you cannot, be prepared!

Sunday classes start this coming weekend, on Sunday, January 22. These are fast-paced 8-week classes. You attend class with an instructor on Sunday and do a pretty fair amount of homework on your own. So it’s not for the faint-of-heart.

Classes starting this 8-week session include:

• Eng 101 – College Composition – 9:00 am
• Psy 101 – General Psychology – 9:00 am

Sorry, since they both start at 9 am, you can’t take both…

Wait! You’re in luck! There are a bunch of classes scheduled to start in March on Sunday, March 25:

• Eng 102 – Composition in Natural & Social Sciences – 9:00 am
• Spa 101 – Elementary Spanish 1 – 9:00 am
• Art 103 – Western Art History 1 – 12:00 noon
• His 102 – World Civilizations 2 – 12:00 noon
• Bus 110 – Personal Money Management – 3:00 pm
• Mat 102 – Algebra 2 – 3:00 pm

Register now so the class you want doesn’t get cancelled for low enrollment.

Stopping internet piracy sounds like a good thing, until you understand what is being asked for.

If, as an example, I were to actually put something relevant on my faculty web site and I put a link to something that turns out to be pirated, the new law would let the copyright owners ban access to my faculty web site. Which would then ban access to all of Genesee’s faculty web sites which, in the end, would affect all of Genesee’s web sites.

All because I put a link on my web site. I have no pirated material, I have no vested interest in the pirated material and, in fact, it could be a lesson in ‘here is pirated material — do not do this.’

This is only a US law. It only affects computers and servers in the US. It does nothing for the gazillion of devices in the rest of the world — where a good deal of the pirated material lies.

In response to this not-so-well-thought-out proposal, a number of web sites will be ‘on strike’ tomorrow – Wednesday, January 18. If you can’t get to your favorite web sites, it may be because they’ve taken themselves offline in protest. A partial list of participants — and links to things you can do — is available here: http://sopastrike.com/

Stealing is wrong. Sending me to jail because I happen to be a casual acquaintance with a thief is not fair.

Chancellor Zimpher is a believer in The Power of SUNY and in community colleges — and the future of Genesee is firmly related to the future of SUNY.

Watch for the Genesee cougar in the first montage of SUNY schools!

Listen to what she has to say… Okay, I have to warn you the entire video is about an hour!

If you’re new to college or new to online classes or new to Genesee or just confused, there are a series of Orientations and help options already set up to make the start of the semester go better.

Orientations

There’s an Orientation for new students in Arcade on Wednesday, January 11 and another in Batavia on Friday, January 13 (hey! Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month! cool!)  You should register for the Batavia session so we know you’re coming.

We were in Dansville last Saturday so, sorry, you missed us there, but if you’re going to any campus center for classes and have any questions, stop in and the staff there is more than willing to help.

There’s a point-to-point technical orientation on January 14 starting at 9:00 am in Medina where we will be able to answer questions about almost anything also… read down for the Tech Orientation info.

Technical Orientations

There’s a Webinar on Tuesday, January 10 at 11 am (more info here) that you can also join in person in T203.

There’s a morning worth of Orientation on Saturday, January 14 starting at 9:00 am in T219. Carl Wahlstrom will be doing a session on “How to be a Successful Distance Learning Student” — and DL includes online, hybrid and face to face! — and then we’ll be doing a hands-on session about logging into your class, how to find your syllabus and how to use Blackboard.

If you need help with usernames / passwords you can call the Help Desk at 1-866-614-5004 or if you’re in Batavia, you can stop by T207 and we’ll be glad to help you there.

One Stop

The folk from Advisement, Financial Aid, Business Office and Food Service will be in the Forum of the Batavia Campus on January 12, 13, 17 and 18 (Thursday through Wednesday) to help with any questions about registration, paying bills, signing up for meal plans and books. Phew.

Here’s the deal for January 2012. Leave a comment (or send me an email!) so I can send you the GCC Member code that you also need.

As I already said in “Looking for A New Computer” you really should be looking at price and, honestly, $1,000 is too much to pay for a new laptop for most of what we do around here… but, never hurts to look!

Clickee on the picture to make it bigger so you can read it.

Couple of important things are happening on the next 2 Tuesdays!

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Tuesday, January 10 at 11:00 am is our Technical Orientation webinar. This is open to all students in all classes and it’s an opportunity to learn about some of the technology at Genesee and what you might need to use. While the original audience was our Distance Learning students, you’ll be using technology in all of your classes whether face to face, hybrid or online.

We will be in T203 on the Batavia campus. You’re welcome to come in and join us there!

The link to the webinar is in the “Technical Orientation” page… just look up a bit and click on the tab. We will record this session, so if you can’t join us online, you can watch at your convenience.

Nursing Students: We have a special session at 1:00 pm in T203 for Nursing students. Come and see what resources we have for you!

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Tuesday, January 17 is the start of the Spring 2012 semester! Two weeks from today! (meep!)

Monday, January 16 is a holiday for the college. The buildings will be closed but the Help Desk will be open. Call them at 1-866-614-5004 if you have any technical problems they might be able to help you with.

Starting on Tuesday, we’ll be in T207 in the Batavia campus from 7:45 am to 6:00 pm to help with resetting usernames and passwords. If you’re a returning student, your passwords have not changed. But if you need help, we’ll be glad to help you out!

Welcome to 2012! Hang on tight!

2011 was supposed to be the year of living passionately. That’s a BHAG itself, actually. And 2011 wasn’t a bad year. Nothing awful happened in my life, family is doing well and we’re all still here. Pretty good deal.

For 2012, though, let’s try a short list of BHAGs. Because they’re BIG, just making any kind of a dent in them is a good thing and not meeting the goal doesn’t mean failure – the effort alone is good.

1. Get Healthier

Honestly. Have you met me? Well, some of you haven’t. I am, ahem, horizontally challenged and would like to make a dent in that. There are other things I need to do that would help also. Anything more than that is TMI!

2. Write 75,000 words

Whoa. And that’s new words, not taking advantage of existing WIPs. (Oh, right. “Work in Progress.”) In the end, that’s only 6250 words a month. Oh, my! And I get to count just about anything I write (including the blogs… ) …   I’ll make irregular updates about this one….

3. Learn something new

Not sure what this is going to be yet. Part of my job makes me learn new things all the time but, well, there are lots more ‘things’ out there and I need to look for — and be open to – them.

That’s more than enough for one person.  How about you? Wanna share?

Tuition is due today, December 30. That means the Business Office needs to know where all the money is coming from. The cool part is that there are options:

• Financial Aid – the obvious one. If you were here in the Fall, Spring financial aid is cake, you’ve already done most of the work. If you’re a new student, you need to make sure all your paperwork is complete before your Financial Aid will be ‘credited’ to your account.
• Loans – part of the Financial Aid thing. If the paper work is done and there’s an entry in your Account, you’re all set.
• Payment plan – the Business Office has an option for a payment plan. You can have payments taken from a bank account or a credit card every month.
• Cash / Check / Credit Card – Well, they really only want cash if you’re bringing it to Batavia and dropping it off yourself. Don’t mail cash, for heaven’s sake! But checks can be mailed and they will take credit cards over the phone.
• Third Party payments – if someone else (mom and dad don’t count here, sorry!) is paying your bills, you need paperwork in the Business Office ASAP so they can tell you if they need any more documentation. Again, if it doesn’t appear on your account, they don’t know about it officially.

Account? Oh, that. You need to log into Genesis, click on “Student Services” then “Student Records Information Menu” then on “Account Summary by Term” and select Spring 2012.

If you have a zero, you’re all set; a negative number means you’ll have money coming back to you. You can use that for textbooks or food now. You’ll get anything left over back later — half in February and the other half in late March.

If you don’t make arrangements for tuition payment, you will be dropped from your classes. Unofficially known as “the purge” — students who are looking for seats in classes wait for the purge to happen and will scoop up your prime seats if you aren’t careful.

Sure, you can re-register if you’re purged. BUT. You have to do it in person, you cannot do it online. You have to tell your advisor how you’re going to make the tuition payment. THEN you can get registered. And pay immediately. Not pretty. Easier to do it now than later.

It’s not too late!

During this time, there will be no access to grades, registration and — most important — tuition payment.

Yes, we know this isn’t a good time for Banner to be offline since Spring tuition is due on Friday but we gotta do what we gotta do.

If you have questions, do ask!