FROM OUR READERS: Community college name change a bad joke

In two articles, one printed in the Review-Journal and one printed in the Spring Valley View, it was pointed out that the jokes of comedians drove two people to begin the process of dropping the word "community" from the Community College of Southern Nevada’s name. One of these two people was outgoing CCSN Student Body president Presley Conkle. The other was Regent Steve Sisolak.

According to the Spring Valley View article from June 26, Mr. Conkle called in to Adam Carolla’s nationally syndicated radio show, where Mr. Carolla said community college isn’t real college and people shouldn’t be allowed to think it is. Mr. Carolla continued that all Mr. Conkle was doing "is trying to remove the shame factor and the negative stigma from life." Well, according to Mr. Conkle, Regent Sisolak heard the interview and was "livid about it."

In the Review-Journal article published on Jan. 8, Mr. Conkle said, "Jay Leno makes a lot of jokes about community college."

It looks as if there are two main reasons the word "community" was dropped from the Community College of Southern Nevada’s name. The first one is the most clear. Two comedians were doing their jobs.

The second one is not so clear and only a psychologist could make a determination. Could it be that Mr. Sisolak and Mr. Conkle have very thin skin? Maybe they both have scars from being made fun of when they were younger. Maybe they have low self-esteem.

The last time I checked, we haven’t changed our current president because comedians make fun of him. Paris Hilton is still a celebrity even though comedians make fun of her. Celebrities still book appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno and Adam Carolla’s program even though the hosts of these shows might make fun of them. So why did two people suddenly start taking comedians seriously? Especially since CCSN had already spent almost $1 million over the past year in a marketing campaign to re-brand the college. The only reason CCSN had to re-brand itself in the first place is because the college’s administration has always been confused, as have students and the community, as to the college’s name, colors and logo.

We may never know the real reasons behind the college’s name change. However, I can tell you that CCSN (now called the College of Southern Nevada) administration and the Board of Regents are hiding behind the supposed "student-led" change. I know this because members of student government under Mr. Conkle told me it was a regent who came to them and said that if they got enough signatures, the regents would change the name. Thus, the idea came from the very highest of higher education authority in Nevada.

Second, no one in the CCSN administration, nor the Board of Regents, felt it necessary to certify that all 9,000 or 10,000 signatures (the number changes with each article on this subject) came from actual community college students.

And third, many students have told me that they were lied to by student government during their drive for signatures. Many a possible ballot issue has been held up by the courts because even one signature was not allowed. Yet, the voter-elected Board of Regents failed to check these signatures. What kind of message does this send to voters?

Since this is how administration at the now College of Southern Nevada and the Board of Regents operates, I would like to initiate a change. I would like to invite both groups over to my house for a viewing party. We will watch two great comedic films. First will be the college classic, "National Lampoon’s Animal House." This will be followed by the film "Old School." Why these two films? Well, they are movies by comedians that make fun of college deans. They place a bad stigma on college deans. The same bad stigma comedians placed on "community" colleges.

After the viewing, I hope both parties will be so dissatisfied with the portrayals of deans that they will vote to remove all dean positions at the College of Southern Nevada at the next Board of Regents meeting. This will save the College of Southern Nevada a ton of money that can be spent on other things besides making students and the community more confused about our name, colors and logo. We may even be able to hire more instructors for those departments that need them.

This obviously is a comedic idea. Too bad it is based on our reality.

Rick Marks

LAS VEGAS

 

THE WRITER IS A PROFESSOR AT THE NEWLY RENAMED COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA.