PVCC: Spectrum Contents

When Jill Street, an MCC - Penn Valley student with a physical disability, tried to participate in the school's scheduled Civil Rights Pilgrimage Learning Community, she forced MCC to reevaluate its ADA compliance.

"ADA" refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal statute designed to ensure equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities. As a federally recognized and accredited institution, MCC is subject to ADA standards.

However, the Civil Rights Pilgrimage, an intersession class and trip to important Civil Rights sites around the U.S., is not and has never been accessible to students like Jill Street, who is in a wheelchair. For that matter, none of the school's trips, beginning as early as 2002, have been wheelchair-accessible.

Features

Jazz at the Gem

In a stunning conflagration of mellow jazz and bright bebop energy, Kansas City's finest musical talent dazzled a nearly packed house at the historic Gem Theater at 18th and Vine on Sunday evening, April 22. Many audience members - who may have entered the theater considering themselves cool and in control - were eventually overwhelmed by the radiant heat of the performances, and could barely quit clapping rhythm and dancing in their seats even between songs.

"Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop," a benefit for the Bridge Home for Children (http://www.bhfc.org/), was the sixth annual presentation of the Jazz Cabaret by the Plaza Rotary Foundation, a branch of the Kansas City Plaza Rotary Club (http://kcplazarotary.org/index.html). President Will Hodgkinson, who also teaches English at MCC - PV, introduced the event.

More Features Stories:

A Day on an Ambulance
April Is For Action, Awareness
Health Care for KC's Uninsured
News You Can't Use But That Probably Involved Booze

Opinions

Editorial: The Flip Side of "Diversity"

As you may have read in our story, the Missouri House recently passed House Bill 213, the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act. "Intellectual diversity," as defined by the Act, is "the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological, religious, and other perspectives, when such perspectives relate to the subject matter being taught or issues being discussed."

More Opinions Stories:

Editorial: They’re Dead. They’re All Dead. Wanna Buy A Halter Top?
Blame Control: Caught in the Crosshairs
Column: Top Ten Reasons to Be in Kansas City This Summer
Letter to the Editor: OTA Program Activities

Letters Policy

"Letters to the Editor" are welcomed, both from inside and outside the MCC community. Letters must include your full name, email address, and phone number; only the name will be published. Anonymous letters will not be published except under very unusual circumstances. Letters might be edited for readability or clarity and are published at the sole discretion of the Spectrum staff.

Spectrum does not publish mass produced policy statements that masquerade as letters to the editor. Only letters independently submitted by individuals to Spectrum are considered for publication. Please do not send any other documents.

Submit a Letter to the Editor by emailing editor@mcckc.edu