Artist Eric Humphries captures tragic historical events in brightly colored cartoon-like paintings. His work, along with three-dimensional art by Hugh Meade, appears in the campus exhibit entitled “Art With Purpose.”

The show will remain through April 15 in the OCCC Art Gallery, located in the Visual and Arts Performing Center. The exhibit is free and open to the public from Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 pm.

Meade, who creates furniture, calls himself an artifactor, a Latin word that means “thing maker.” Meade also exhibits shoes made of wood and Lego toys.

The 20th annual International Student Awareness Day was hosted at the State Capitol Monday, March 28.

Including OCCC’s English as a Second Language program’s students, 522 international students attended from 79 countries all over the world.

Yolande Kombou, a student from Cameroon, has visited Cameroon’s capitol Yaoundé many times and was curious to see if Oklahoma’s was anything like it.

“We don’t have a democracy, so it’s not really the same. But I enjoyed my time at this capitol building immensely,” Kombou said.

The event featured free booths, entertainment, and local and international cuisine. Participants had the opportunity to meet with other international students and network with state officials such as Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, Honorary Consuls, and university and business representatives.

The topic was gay and lesbian history month and the response was a blizzard of electronic messages.

Some of the e-mails were “awful,” a few were “heartfelt” but most were “kind of scary,” said Rachel Butler, Norman City Council member and OCCC librarian.

Butler described the reaction to the Gay and Lesbian History Month Resolution the Norman council passed when she spoke to the evening News Writing class in March.

Butler said the experience played a part in her decision not to seek re-election this year.

On Sept. 28, the Norman City Council voted 7-1 to accept a resolution acknowledging October as LGBT History Month.

She said the experience was different from anything else she had ever experienced in her eight years as a Norman City Council member.

OCCC and the Green Task Force will be working together to celebrate Earth Day on April 19.

The festivities planned include a student information fair, an educational movie, and a ceremonial tree planting, said Jenny Kellbach, a member of the Green Task Force.

Kellbach says she believes it’s important to celebrate Earth Day to remind students, faculty and staff of their responsibility to educate each other about being environmentally friendly.

As turmoil and uprisings spread across the Middle East, so do their effects and consequences globally.

In Libya, as American and other international forces work to protect citizens from the aggression of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, many are uncertain about the situation as a whole.

As in Egypt, where former president Hosni Mubarak ruled for nearly 30 years, Libya’s Gaddafi has been in power for 42 years.

Gaddafi’s tenure makes him one of the longest non-royal ruling leaders in world history, per rulers.org.

If test-takers could make changes in OCCC’s Testing Center, what would they be, Director Jim Ellis asked a Pioneer reporter earlier in the semester.

Not much, it seems from talking to students.

An unscientific survey of students showed general satisfaction with the Testing Center. One low-key suggestion was it might be more “homelike.”

Ellis posed the question at a time when more students than normal were using the Testing Center to take exams in their classes.

Workers in the medical field are constantly faced with tough decisions that leave them wrestling with questions of right and wrong, said guest speaker Jane Carney during a March meeting of the Health Professions Club.

Carney spoke on the importance of medical ethics, or moral principals applied to situations in the field of medicine.

A specialist in gerontology and medical ethics, Carney retired from OCCC in 2006 and has been giving this presentation for a few years.

She stressed confidentially, which she defined as any secret, if revealed, that could cause harm to the patient.

Los Angeles, Thailand, the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and Canada have all been travel destinations for Professor Vicky Davidson, a physical therapist who teaches in OCCC’s physical therapist assistant program.

Davidson goes to work, not play.

Davidson has been a volunteer at numerous work sites for Habitat for Humanity, an organization that builds homes for less fortunate families in the U.S. and in other parts of the world.

Davidson said she was motivated to participate in these trips after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

“I had been to New Orleans many times, since my daughter and niece attended Tulane University,” she said.

Quadruple the classrooms, an all-natural playground, and on-site security are just a few of the amenities to be had at OCCC’s Child Development Center and Lab School, recently relocated to the new Family and Community Education Center at 6500 S. Land Avenue.

“We were busting at the seams (before),” said teacher’s assistant Rebecca Linger. “Now, we have room to grow.”

In its former on-campus location, teacher Lisa Jones said, the CDCLS had cramped office quarters and only three classrooms.

OCCC will separate its General Biology course into two different classes, one for science majors and another for non-majors, beginning fall 2011, said Raul Ramirez, biology professor.

General Biology will be split into General Biology, BIO 1114, and General Biology (Majors), BIO 1124.

“It was unfair to beat the non-majors with a lot of detail a major student would need,” Ramirez said.