March is the month where the sun comes out of hiding and warms up the EvCC campus. Birds are chirping and preparing for the sunny days ahead. Spring is in the air and St Patrick’s Day is the first holiday of spring. 

March 8th, 1963: St Patrick’s Day Band Concert 

Although not everyone celebrates St Patrick’s Day, there’s much fun to be had pinching anyone and everyone not wearing green. First celebrated in the United States in 1601, St Patrick’s Day changed from a religious-based holiday to a multicultural holiday, focused on wearing green and shamrocks, and pinching anyone who isn’t. Many

celebrations and festivals still occur, and the history of how St Patrick became a saint is still told in churches and communities. 

In 1963, The Clipper published an article to inform readers “Band Concert Slated For St. Patrick’s Day.” ‘Slated’ meaning ‘scheduled for.’ According to the 1963 Clipper article, “David McCourt, political science instructor, will read the Moore Poem, ‘Minstrel-Boy’, which is set to the musical background of a traditional Irish tune…The concert will also feature the Concert band, under the direction of James Albert, the Brass Choir, Woodwind Quartet and the Wind Ensemble, featuring EJC music instructors, Paul Giroux and Jack Shawger. The Brass Choir will play ‘Five Dances from the 15th and 16th Centuries’, and the Woodwind Quintet will play ‘Five Piece Combo’ by Don Gillis.” 

March 12th, 1993: The Exciting New Tool of Multimedia

“‘Multimedia: How Does It Really Work In The Classroom’ was taped via satellite broadcast recently and is now available for viewing in the EvCC Library Media Center” reports The Clipper in a March 12, 1993 article. This was big news, in 1993 the internet was starting to become available to anyone after only being accessible by Government and Universities before 1991, and in 1993 the first web browser that displayed images was created. The Digital Revolution was beginning to effect learning in a whole new way and EvCC got first access to learning materials for the technology. “‘Much of our education has been based on words and numbers. Although we are used to dealing with a text-based world, it is not ‘natural’ in the sense that text not only limits the scope of information we can grasp but text can make it more difficult for us to understand some topics … it requires the brain to continuously code and decode information.’” stated Dr. Diana G. Oblinger, IBM program manager in a written presentation. Today almost every textbook has photos to accompany topics, and videos are often shown to help understand more confusing concepts. Apart from this, many classes don’t even use textbooks or offer them completely free online. All of those luxuries are thanks to the integration of the quickly changing world of technology and multimedia into schools. 

March 13th, 1987: Campus After Fire 

Friday the 13th goes back nearly 4000 years to the Code Of Hammurabi, which left out the number 13 from its legal codes. Friday, March 13, 1987, was perhaps another piece of evidence that Friday the 13th isn’t a lucky day. 

A former security guard for EvCC admitted to “Sleeping in the photography lab during the fire’s onset,” according to the March 13, 1987 Clipper article. ‘The fire’ refers to Cascade Hall, now the Parks Student Union, that burned down from a suspected arson. That fire. 

He told The Clipper, “he ‘Walked into the job’ with no prior experience in this field, filled out no application form, and provided no references. ‘As far as they knew,’ he said, ‘I might have had a criminal record.’”  He also claimed “…[The security team] Never told me a thing about what my job requirements were.” 

While he wasn’t thoroughly interviewed, or given job requirements, he did have two training shifts with the former security guard he replaced. “… There was an unspoken acceptance of such things as watching television in Rainier Hall, washing clothes in the Home Ec. department, and swimming in the gym’s pool. ‘Nobody ever said don’t do these things’ he said” According to the Clipper Article.   

The security guard does remember a few things from the day of the fire though. There was a window open on the second story of the library he wished he would have closed. One of three security guards on campus should have closed that window, but did not. Also, he saw a man in coveralls whose car had broken down the night of the fire, right next to campus. He wished he would have talked to that man and found out his situation, or at least got the license plate number for identification.

Check out the photo gallery below for more clippings from these old issues of The Clipper.

Gallery • 5 Photos

Clipper Archives

The multimedia training at EvCC is talked about in this Clipper article from 1993.