The Week of March 18th | Weekly News Recap

In this episode I discuss this week, the week of March 18th's Berea College News broadcast. Which includes stories on the Visitor Center & Smoothie Bar's sad closure and its transformation into something new, along with a brief discussion about the swim requirement here on campus, and ending with a segment on the Spanish Department's Student Radio Show. Tune in next week for more!

Transcript

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Hello, my name is Aiden, and welcome to this week, the week of March 18th's weekly news recap. This week we have three major stories regarding the Visitor Center and Smoothie Bar's closure, the swim requirement here on campus, and lastly the Spanish Department student radio show. Starting off with information regarding the Visitor Center and Smoothie Bar's closure, which for anyone who may have missed the announcement or our broadcast, this may come to you as a surprise. But President Nixon has referred to this period of change as a part of a multi-phase redesign process here on campus. This redesign process will include the closure and transformation of the Visitor Center and Smoothie Bar into something new, a museum-like space to express the history of our college all in one space, which will include various displays, student crafts, and much more. Here we have Izzy Spence discussing several uh interviews she conducted here on campus about such change, starting off with President Nixon.

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President Cheryl Nixon for a comment regarding the decision to reimagine the center and what that might look like for labor students. And she responded saying, We're excited for the next evolution of the Berea College Visitor Center as a place that truly showcases the Berea story. The redesigned space will highlight all aspects of campus life, from our distinctive mission and history to our excellent academics, to our work college program, to our special spaces such as the forest. Visitors will have the opportunity to see students in action demonstrating craft and other hands-on work that reflects Berea's tradition of learning by doing. The project will include new retail space previously occupied by the White Stick store, allowing us to expand our footprint and share more of what makes Berea special. We do not expect any impact on student labor positions. Rather, we see this as creating new opportunities for students to engage with visitors and represent the college. He says, I and the whole team here at Student Craft are excited to be playing a role in the development of a new visitor center that will be dedicated to sharing Berea's past and perhaps most importantly, its dynamic and expansive present and future. This new space will allow prospective students, visitors to the city of Berea, and friends of the college to gain a deeper understanding of the college's mission and values by connecting them directly with the center's labor students, who will play a significant role in the character and identity of the center, ensuring the most accurate and complete understanding of Berea College possible.

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And lastly, a quote from an anonymous smoothie bar employee and how it affects them.

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More than a stop for visitors, the center is also a labor position for students. Therefore, we reached out to the labor students from the center who wish to remain anonymous. One says, When I came to Berea, I was nervous about my labor position, but after orientation and meeting everyone, I came to love my job. From freshman year to now, I have grown so much and learned so many skills because of the smoothie bar. I have made wonderful memories and friends from working there. I love talking to customers and helping make their days brighter amidst all the hustle and bustle of college life. I will be immensely saddened to lose my labor position working at the smoothie bar, all for the space to be reimagined. But I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more skills and switch over to the retail side of the business. This swift change felt like a quick pushover as I worked so hard to grow the smoothie bar. I still have many more ideas for the smoothie bar and ways to improve the space. I always imagined ending my time here at Berea working at the smoothie bar and my senior year going out with a bang. But I guess all good things must come to an end. Although it will be sad to see such a vibrant student space gone, I'm sure the new space will be a wonderful walkthrough museum for tourists to Peruse.

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For more information, you may read the announcement made on March 10th regarding such change. Next up, we have information regarding the Berea College Swim Requirement brought to us by Quinn. This segment overall discusses both size and perspectives when it comes to the swim requirement as a whole. This requirement does teach and teach the necessary skill that is swimming. But does everyone agree with its importance? Some students have begun to protest that requirement to the students that have previous lifeguard certifications still being obliged to take the assessment, along with others protesting the difficulty behind getting the assessment waived due to trauma or other difficulties, ending off with this segment with an interview conducted by Quinn with staff Sarah Sanders.

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I spoke with staff with the opposite opinion. Staff explained why the course is required in the first place. Sarah Adams stated that the swim requirement may in part be a unique substitution of the college's commitment to the kindship of all people, and that it seeks to make things a little bit more equal for black people and white people in regards to swimming knowledge. She then went on to state, There's a process in place for students who need to be excused from the swim requirement, not for disinterest, but for disability-related issues. The first step for any student seeking a waiver of the swim requirement should talk with DAS. Lastly, she stated, in the new general education proposal was being discussed, other life skill courses dependent on what a student needed to learn. Say a driving class, a cooking class, a basic car repair class, etc., were proposed, but those ideas did not make it to the final proposal. So the swim requirements and what we have.

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And lastly, the Spanish department here on campus discovered an interesting way to educate individuals. Here, Jessica Powell reports on such events using the podcast room on the second floor of CMIT, where I am sitting now, as their recording studio, which provides students with professional equipment to record their podcast andor radio show. Students from the Spanish department have been have begun utilizing such space for their Spanish radio show. This segment includes an interview between Jessica and one of the students involved who helps produce such show.

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One of the students involved in the project is Ephraim Zambrana, who helps produce the radio show as part of his labor position.

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The department that I work at is a Spanish department during foreign language. And our radio show is called Roma al Mundo, that is our underworld. That's in Spanish. A couple years ago, one of our TAs, and she's a senior right now, started building this type of stuff. So we have three different outside of like being normal TAs and like having classes and just focusing on that, we have radio show, we have movies, we present movies in Spanish. Um every week is picked differently. That's on Mondays. We also do on Wednesdays at 6 to 7. We do just an open hours to like learn Spanish but in a fun way. We play games, um, discussion, like it's something informal. So students could get more comfortable with with a language. I think it's important because not everyone learns the same, especially there's a language. Language is pretty either language is pretty difficult to learn. Instead of listening to movies or stuff, you listen to students here that are already comfortable with Spanish, and it's a different way of them to being the podcast room is available for other departments and students here on campus.

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For more info, come visit or scan one of the many BCNR barcodes around campus. That concludes today's weekly news recap. Thank you for listening and catch the full broadcast plus more online at www.bcnewsradio.com. I'm Aiden Carter and have a great rest of you for week. Goodbye.