Trespassing, pornography viewing top crime

Trespassers and a library user viewing pornography were the major problems OCCC Security had to deal with over the last few weeks.

The trespassers, Jesse Hearon, 46, and Jackie Hearon, 47, were seen digging through a dumpster on campus by Officer Austin Plackemeier as he was driving in to work on March 2.

Plackemeier checked with officers on duty, who said they were unaware of the men, then went to confront them as they prepared to leave the campus in a flatbed truck, which was loaded with trash and scrap metal.

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Security office stores items lost, found on campus

That favorite sweater of yours might not be gone after all or maybe that notebook you forgot in the cafeteria isn’t actually stolen.

Before giving up hope of finding missing items, students should check with Lost and Found, said campus Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick.

Lost and Found is located in the Safety and Security Department located right behind the coffee shop on the first floor of the Main building. Many people are unaware that Lost and Found is located there.

Only four out of the 15 students interviewed were aware that OCCC had a Lost and Found. Two of the four students who did know had actually lost something.

One of those students was Tiffany McDonald, who remembers the circumstances of learning about Lost and Found. She said she had spent her lunch period at the coffee shop tables early in the afternoon in December.

When she got to her car, she realized she had forgotten her keys. When she returned to the table at which she had just been sitting to look for them, she saw her keys were missing.

Coffee shop employees told her to check Lost and Found in the Safety and Security Department. This was when she learned about the service and reclaimed her car keys, McDonald said.

Fitzpatrick said he wishes more students knew where to check for lost and missing items.

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Nursing graduates score high

Almost 93 percent of OCCC nursing graduates passed their license exam on the first try last year.

This surpassed the national and the state average pass rate for the 2010 National Council Licensure Exam, said Rosemary Klepper, nursing program director for OCCC.

OCCC students exceeded the national average by 5.15 percent and the state average by 5.8 percent.

The NCLEX-RN is an exam that is required nationwide for nursing students to become registered nurses.

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Shooter scare brought about many changes

Some cowered under desks, while others stood outside in what could have been a deadly firing range.

Wherever you were on the morning of Feb. 26, 2010, the date remains an infamous one to countless OCCC students, faculty and staff members.

On that day, a series of communication errors sparked a chain of events that put OCCC on lockdown and would forever alter the college’s safety procedures.

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Some part-time profs question pay scale

With more than half of all OCCC classes — close to 55 percent — now being taught by adjuncts, some of those adjuncts are questioning whether they are being paid fairly for their work.

“All adjuncts are paid the same amount of $640 per credit hour,” said OCCC President Paul Sechrist.

“The amount of actual pay to individual adjuncts will vary due to the number of credit hours per course and how many courses taught.”

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President honored for leadership

OCCC President Paul Sechrist was among the honorees for The 2nd Annual Oklahoma’s Most Admired CEOs, hosted by the Journal Record newspaper at an awards ceremony held Feb. 17 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Sechrist was honored for his work in a Non-Profit with more than $10 million in annual revenue.

The criteria for selection included: leadership and vision, community leadership and service, corporate leadership and service, competitiveness and innovation and financial performance and growth.

“The event was an opportunity to showcase many of Oklahoma’s great companies and non-profit organizations,” Sechrist said.

The importance of the event was emphasized by the attendance of Gov. Mary Fallin, Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and Secretary of Commerce Dave Lopez, he said.

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