Higher education and just plain fun

Editor’s note: Mark Palek is president of Spokane Falls Community College.

Work

I have a whole host of sites bookmarked that are related to my work in one way or another. The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges maintains a Web site ( www.sbctc.ctc.edu/) that contains much practical and interesting data as well as links to every community and technical college in the state. Washington Learns’ site is of interest as an educator and citizen (www.washington learns.wa.gov).

I consult several sites on a regular basis related to sustainability in higher education. Those that are exceptionally useful and informative include: www.uspartnership.org, www.aashe.org, www.ulsf.org, and www.ncseonline.org/EFS. As we move forward as a college it becomes increasingly more important to be a good steward of the resources that have been entrusted to us.

One site that I use for work as well as for satisfying my own curiosity is “Most Common Errors in English” at www.wsu.edu/ ~brians/errors/index.html. Paul Brians from Washington State University maintains a site dedicated to the correct usage of the English language. I often have to check myself to ensure (Or is it insure?) what the correct word choice should be so that I can rest assured that I got it right.

Recreation/relaxation

Some sites are strictly for recreation or relaxation and include seattlemariners.com. This site also connects to many others that are baseball related. For news both professional and general, the following are regular stops on my surfing expeditions (besides the Spokesman): National Public Radio and its local affiliate, ( www.npr.org/ and www.kpbx.org/); the New York Times ( www.nytimes.com/); and The Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com/).

Vacation daydreams

One site with personal relevance is nostos-hotel.com/, which is the Web site of the hotel on the island of Crete at which my wife and I will be spending several weeks late this summer. The view from what is supposed to be our room has been an inspiration (and my screen saver) throughout what seemed to be an extremely long winter.

Roots

I think it’s important to remember where you come from, so I occasionally consult

www.squidoo.com/weirdnewjersey. It’s a site that is dedicated to all things New Jersey. Even though I grew up there and lived in the state for 25 years, I still am amazed by some of the “facts” about the Garden State.

Grave search

At the risk of sounding maudlin or perverse, I sometimes find myself at www.findagrave.com/. In addition to containing some interesting search capabilities, a visitor can answer the question: Is the epitaph on W. C. Fields’ grave really “I’d rather be in Philadelphia”? It also has an extensive archive of obituaries which are akin to mini history lessons.