June 2000 Issue

Designating Days for Honors
The Phi Theta Kappa chapters at Ashland Community College and Maysville Community College, both in Kentucky, hosted an "honors day" on their respective campuses last year. Now they are working together to expand their successful speaker presentations and seminars to include chapters in Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia as well as those in Kentucky.

Presenters at the two "honors day" programs being planned will include faculty and staff from Ashland Community College and Maysville Community College as well as regional experts on water issues. Among the facilitators will be students from both colleges who will have attended the International Honors Institute in San Diego in June.

No Swimming Allowed
Judging from all the activity so far, the chapter at SUNY College of Technology at Delhi, New York, is expecting its most productive year in implementing the Honors Study Topic. The chapter is already working with a faculty expert to learn about water conservation and water sampling and plans to take this knowledge "on the road" by giving presentations and hands-on demonstrations at local high schools and elementary schools.

In addition, the chapter plans to tour a local biological field station to make and post signs which will warn against swimming in the Delhi Reservoir and provide presentations on water-related music and poetry and perhaps other humanities subjects in which water has been an inspiration for art.

This chapter also plans to take field trips to Howe Caverns to study how they were created by water, and to reservoirs and dams in the New York Water System which serves New York City. After studying the source of the water, chapter members will travel to the city to see how this water is being used.

To enhance the study of water, the college is preparing its first-ever honors course on the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Study Topic and has asked chapter advisor and former New York Regional Coordinator, Rosalie Higgins, to become director of an expanding honors program on campus.

Water Workshop
At San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, Phi Theta Kappans will provide a comprehensive workshop on water treatment for chapters throughout their region. The chapter is fortunate to have as a friend and presenter one of the nation's experts in the field; he directs the program of study at San Juan College, one of the few colleges in the United States which offers an associate of science degree in water treatment.

A Flood of Information
The chapter at East Central College in Union, Missouri, will be hosting the Missouri Regional Honors Institute and working with the college administration to support a fall and spring speakers series on the 2000 Honors Study Topic. The chapter will become involved in many water issues, but plans to concentrate its studies on the Missouri River, which is only a few miles from campus and which exercises tremendous influence over the area where the college is located. One study will be historical; another will be designed to predict the role of the river in the lives of the students and their children. Since the town of Union recently suffered $110 million in damage from flash flooding of local creeks, flood control is also a topic of great interest to the chapter. Because rivers in the area are polluted, and the Missouri River is considered one of the most endangered rivers in the country, the chapter will learn about clean-up efforts, and how they can get involved.

Water Rights and Recreation
California’s San Diego Mesa College plans to do an in-depth study of water availability and water rights, since its members are aware of considerable controversy about whether it will be possible for San Diego to continue to get water from northern California or the Colorado River. The chapter is also interested in learning first-hand how local water is processed and cleaned. Chapter members will visit a water management center and listen to several presentations on this topic.

To learn more about the oceans, the chapter will visit Scripps Institute for Oceanographic Research and view the videotape of Dr. Sylvia Earle's presentation at Phi Theta Kappa's recent International Convention.

Other chapter concerns include exploring controversial issues regarding water used by both California and neighboring Mexico. The chapter hopes to get a better understanding of these issues and perhaps write its findings in such a way that they can contribute to some solutions.

Water recreation is also an important issue to chapter members, who would like to learn more about how much water recreation contributes to the area's economy and in what ways it can be made safer, cleaner and more cost-effective.

Finally, the chapter hopes to do a year-long study comparing the amazingly different ecological environments which exist within a 90-minute drive. The study will include the environment of oceans, lakes and streams, mountains and deserts.