Nursing students who don’t speak English as their first language are getting support this fall in the form of recommendations from a college task force.

The Nursing Student Success Task Force has been working since 2009 to design programs to assist nursing students who aren’t being successful, said Lydia Rucker, task force chair and Communications Lab assistant.

Rucker said the group has recommended workshops to teach students how to break down nursing textbooks and how to study.

Students who are looking for healthier food choices or those who are diabetic, on gluten-free diets or vegan may soon find more options in the cafeteria, said Carson’s Catering and Food Concepts General Manager Corrine Aguilar.

Aguilar said she plans to expand the healthy choices offered in the College Union to include meals and foods which are more health and diet centered.

“I have already made a small version of the new menu that will be available soon,” she said. “(I) will have it blown up to a more noticeable size in the cafeteria.”

Today is the last day for students and faculty members to purchase discounted tickets for the 2010-2011 Cultural Arts Series.

Season tickets are 50 percent off until the end of today, said Scott Tigert, Cultural Programs assistant.

In addition, Tigert said, six- and four-ticket packages are also available for lesser discounts.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 Alumni Hall of Fame, said Pat Berryhill, Institutional Advancement executive director.

Berryhill said nominees must have graduated from OCCC and had a positive impact on the community. Anyone can nominate a graduate for the award, she said.

“Faculty, staff, fellow students, community members — they’re all more than welcome,” Berryhill said.

Jennifer Wallis, vice president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Oklahoma City, said although there are new laws in place that force a consumer to prove that they can afford a credit card, debt is still a big problem for students.

“Financial problems are the number one reason people drop out of college,” Wallis said.

OCCC will offer a parenting class starting this fall to teach students how to raise children throughout the first 18 years of their lives.

The 16-week course is scheduled 1 to 1:50 p.m. Mondays beginning Aug. 23.

The parenting class is the brainchild of Cecilia Pittman, Child Development Program director.

For the first time at OCCC, theater students will team up with film and video students to make a short film.

Film and Video Program Director Greg Mellott said the production — titled “Going Down” — is part of an Oklahoma Film Institute summer seminar held until July 16 at the college.

The film will be staged in an elevator car which will be constructed for the film, Mellott said.

Arts Festival Oklahoma directors said they are actively seeking volunteers to help prepare for the Sept. 4 to 6 festival on campus.

Cultural Arts Director Lemuel Bardeguez said those interested in volunteering should contact his office now, as July and August are the main planning months for the arts festival.

Safety and Security will change two ways it handles information coming into the college about potential threats, as it continues to deal with the after-effects of a shooter scare, said Cordell Jordan, Media Relations coordinator

OCCC will more tightly control who gets access to sensitive information about threats such as school shooters and bombs, Jordan said. And, calls made to Safety and Security will be recorded.

Threatening information will be sent out “on a need-to-know basis,” Jordan said.

OCCC employees may be wearing name badges soon, as part of a recommendation made to the college by the Timely Emergency Communications Taskforce.

The recommendation came after a shooter scare Feb. 26, said Student Services and Enrollment Vice President Marion Paden, who co-chaired the taskforce.

The incident involved a report of a gunman in the Keith Leftwich Memorial Library on campus. At that time, no college policy required faculty and staff to wear name badges, according to the list of college policies and procedures on the college’s website.

The task force — which was made up of college staff, administrators, students and faculty — calls for all employees to be required to wear name badges somewhere visible on their bodies.

However, the group asked the college not to enforce the recommendation until fall 2011 at the earliest.