OCCC’s fall break will be this Thursday and Friday, and many students on campus are ready for a much needed vacation.

Student Todd Howard said he looks forward to having his Thursday class off. Howard said he will be heading south for a trip.

“It took forever to get here,” he said, “But I’m going to Galveston to see the beach. Eight weeks took a long time to get here.”

An OCCC automotive technology major placed second in the nation in June at the annual Skills USA competition at Bartle Hall Convention Center in Kansas City, MO.

Daniel Murphy, 18, of Oklahoma City and a graduate of Francis Tuttle Technology Center, won the silver medal at the national level in the Automotive Service Technology category at Skills USA during the week of June 21.

Cash prizes totaling $1,000 will be given away in the spring to students who submit winning essays to the college’s Annual Essay contest in December, said Michael Franco, English professor and composition coordinator of the Language Arts department.

Franco said the contest is open to all OCCC students who have taken either English Composition I, English Composition II, or College Writing during the spring 2010 semester or who are currently enrolled in any of those classes.

The watchful eye of surveillance cameras will be focused even more intently on students in the Testing Center after improved technology is added this semester.

Director Jim Ellis said the Testing and Assessment Center is reconfiguring its 16 surveillance cameras to help prevent cheating.

OCCC Safety and Security is considering adding an earthquake alert to the college’s IP phone system after the Oklahoma Geological Society confirmed a 4.7 magnitude earthquake that shook OCCC as well as much of the state at about 9:06 a.m. Oct. 13.

Safety and Security Coordinator Keith Bourque said no alert was sent over campus telephones after the earthquake because currently, there is no earthquake alert in place.

For smokers, Aug. 1 will mark the end of an era. On that day OCCC will become a smoke-free campus with smoking banned throughout the institution — including outdoors.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously June 21 to outlaw smoking and the use of other tobacco products on campus, President Paul Sechrist said.

Adjunct English Professor Blake Hamilton’s short story of friendship and betrayal has been chosen for publication by National Public Radio. “The Exchange” has been included in the “Three Minute Fiction” series on NPR.org.

To enter the competition, Hamilton’s story had to have the opening line: “Some swore that the house was haunted” and the closing line of: “Nothing was ever the same again after that.”

OCCC graduate Colby Daniels won a $1000 scholarship Wednesday, Oct. 6, at the 2010 Oklahoma Educational Television Authority and Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association Seminar.

Daniels was one of four college students to be awarded the Gene Dillehay Memorial Scholarship.

Additional schools represented at the seminar included the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Langston University, Oklahoma Baptist Univeresity and Cameron University.

An outside consulting firm will spend the next two years rebuilding the college’s website with an eye to making it easier for prospective students to navigate.

Stephanie Geyer, Noel-Letvitz Higher Education Consulting associate vice president, discussed plans for an overhaul of the website during the Faculty Association meeting Sept. 28.

Key bits of information that students want to know can be hard to find on the current website, Geyer said.

Scores of students threaded their way through crowds gathered in the Main Building last week to speak with university representatives during the annual Transfer Fair Sept. 29.

Recruiters from 28 universities staffed tables lining the hallway to the College Union.

“The Transfer Fair is going really well,” said Sara McElroy, Transferring and Academic Advising coordinator, who organized the event.