February 10, 2017 – Barstow College

 part the campus was empty.  I got a laugh when I found the academic senate offices, which must have been housed in an old dark room facility because there was an “In Use” light above the door.  At CCSF that light would always be on!

            I spoke with a very nice secretary in student services, who informed me that the college of about 5000 students was heavily invested in online education.  They were one of the early adopters given that Barstow is sandwiched between military facilities that are over 30 miles away in opposite directions.  They are having the same issues as us with online programs, being in the process of switching to Canvas from Moodle this year.   They also provide bus passes and gas cards to their qualifying students and are also one of the recipients of a state grant to make community college free for high school transfers from their area.  Their students are mostly low income and qualify for assistance beyond the grant so the grant is more for the initiation and promotion of the program.  It was clear the resources in this community were not excessive; it was a school, in middle of a desert, not a resort.  But it did my heart good to find such nice people here, really warm, and friendly, and the issues they face on a day-to-day basis are the same as ours.  Well perhaps not exactly the same, they now need to find programing for their new arts center…

            From here I hoped on the freeway east with the goal of crossing into Arizona, which I did around 1pm.  The high dessert landsc

ape was vast and quite dramatic.  Still fighting the urge to ditch the discipline and head to Vegas, I took the southern route via interstate 40.  The closest Arizona Community College was in Kingman and knowing it was a Friday I wanted to reach it before everybody went home for the weekend.  En route I stopped in Needles for refueling and an onramp detour took me right by a satellite campus for Palo Verde College.  The building was closed and non descript as to what programs were offered there from the outside.  Perhaps the great idea to take home from this leg of the journey is “Close on Fridays, everybody else does!”