Finals week in the Testing Center starts out busy and gets busier, said Linda Little, director of Testing and Assessment at OCCC. On average, about 4,000 tests are administered during finals week, Little said.

To accommodate students, the Testing Center will be offering extended hours during finals week.

Monday through Friday, May 11 through 15, the Testing Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. The doors will lock at 10 p.m.

On Saturday, May 16, the hours will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and doors lock at 4 p.m.

For students who have some flexibility about when they take final exams, Little had some advice on how to make the best of a hectic period.

The college Board of Regents recognized Devery Youngblood on April 27 for his service as a regent and presented him with a framed proclamation, thanking him for his dedication to the board.

Then he was sworn in to serve a full seven-year term, after being reappointed by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Youngblood served the remaining four years of Dave Lopez’s term when Lopez was appointed as Secretary of Commerce.

Youngblood said he chose to be a regent, which is a volunteer position, because of the students.

About 100 people turned out to sample original literature and smooth jazz April 30, at the annual reception for The Absolute, OCCC’s literary and art journal.

The college union room slowly filled with both students and faculty while the sounds of the Student Jazz Ensemble played in the background.

Faculty Advisor Marybeth McCauley introduced the journal’s 2015 student editors to the room before they announced this year’s award-winners.

Kylie Combs, the winner of the Critic’s Choice Award for nonfiction, was the first to be called to the stage to read her work.

A small group of OCCC Spanish students will be going to Costa Rica to study from May 18 through 30. They will join a class from Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah for the trip to Central America.

The students will improve their Spanish and at the same time will enjoy the adventures and beauties of Costa Rica, said Oklahoma Study Abroad coordinator Christian Alyea, who will guide the group.

Costa Rica is a country with one of the world’s biggest biodiversity environments. It might be a small country but from the Caribbean Sea on the east coast to the Pacific Ocean on the west coast, students will learn in a variety of settings, most of them outdoors, Alyea said.

OCCC’s most recent blood drive fell short of its goal, said Terri Townsend, coordinator of the Oklahoma Blood Institute. They had hoped to collect at least 70 donations during the two days that the donation center was on campus, April 14 and 15.

But only 53 blood donors responded to the call. In the first day 29 blood donations were registered and in the second day only 24.

“We were expecting at least 70,” Townsend said.

Townsend said that blood donations save millions of lives across the U.S.