In Honor of Poppy

In honor of my Grandfather "Poppy," I will not post the remainder of the week.

Billy Joe Cutbirth
(October 4, 1932-July 28, 2009)
A great oak has fallen. Billy Joe Cutbirth departed this world July 28, 2009. He was the embodiment of grit, hard work, and determination and held fast to his uncompromising values. Born prematurely to parents Henry Cutbirth and Annie Jones Cutbirth on October 4, 1932, he survived by being fed with an eye dropper and spending his first days in a shoe box placed in the bread warmer of their wood cook stove. This grit and determined spirit carried him throughout his life.
Billy Joe was well-liked and respected by those he encountered, and when he talked, people listened. Even though he was given the name William Daniel by his parents, as a young boy he convinced his teachers, friends, and family that his name should be Billy Joe. And one day he proclaimed, “From this day on, call me Billy Joe,” so they did, and we did, and he lived on Billy Joe Road in Crane for nearly 60 years.
Billy Joe loved the Ozarks and celebrated his hill-folk heritage, where the figure-it-out and do-it-yourself way is held in high regard. He was a talented carpenter and accomplished farmer, able to do anything that needed done himself. He left this world with calloused hands so thick that they will never wear thin.
He loved to grow a garden, restore antique furniture, attend auctions, and “study things through” for himself and others. Active in community issues, he faithfully served on the Crane School Board for many years, as well as the Stone County Soil and Water Board.
Billy Joe understood the importance of family. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and brother, ensuring their needs were met. Billy Joe and wife Helen raised their four children in a caring home on the family farm in the “holler.” He exercised unconditional love for his children, and when discipline was necessary, a look from his sky-blue Irish eyes and a point from his index finger was all it ever took.
Billy Joe served as a more wonderful example of a husband, father, grandfather, brother, and neighbor than this world will ever see. He will be sorely missed by all.
He is preceded in death by parents Henry and Annie Cutbirth and siblings Laura Cutbirth, Lorene Hedrick, Freda Baker, Herman Cutbirth, Finus Cutbirth, Barbara Henson, Grace Bell, and Richard Cutbirth.
Billy Joe is survived by his wife of 58 years, Helen Chastain Cutbirth of Crane, Mo.; children Judy Berkstresser and husband Allen of Crane, Janet “Sis” Cutbirth of Springfield, Mo., Billy “Son” Cutbirth and wife Lesa of Crane, Brian Cutbirth and wife Carol of Clever, Mo.; sisters Ellie Clines of Ponce de Leon, Mo., and Neta Colleen McKnight of Crane; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They loved him dearly and miss him greatly.

Got Milk?

College of the Ozarks has been named to the 2010 edition of The Princeton Review’s Best 371 Colleges, http://www.princetonreview.com/.

Only about 15% of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review's flagship annual college guide. It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with school rating scores in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the colleges.

The 80-question survey asks students about their school’s academics, administration, campus life, student body and themselves. Ranking lists for this edition are based on surveys of 115,000 students.

College of the Ozarks ranked among the top 20 in several categories. The Princeton Review ranked C of O fourth in “Stone-Cold Sober Schools,” and seventh in “Town-Gown Relations are Great.” C of O was also listed in “Got Milk?,” “Most Conservative Students” and “Best College Theater.”

The profile also offers feedback from current students. One student survey participant defined the average C of O undergraduate as “well-rounded, extremely helpful, friendly, down to earth, and used to earning every penny they have.”

While much of the survey was student opinion, other categories explored such information as financial need, the number of extracurricular activities offered, the admissions process and even the work ethic.

Losing my Poppy

I lost my grandfather this morning. It's an empty feeling to lose someone you lived next to and spent so much time with your entire life. I actually lived 28 of my 31 years within a mile from him. Even after I moved an hour away, I went to visit he and my granny every Sunday. Two Sundays ago, I made my normal visit, but I didn't realize it would be my last to speak to him. I had cleaned their house and washed the blanket on his favorite chair. The last thing he said to me was, "Widders (my nickname), my blanket feels real fuzzy." That was his way of thanking me, even though he didn't have to thank me.
In true Cutbirth fashion, he did not give up fighting. As his family surrounded him after the respirator was removed he lingered. I think mainly he did that to listen to us recount the many stories we had heard from him. We talked about the time when his brother chopped his toes off with an ax, when he was a little boy. Both brothers calling the either's bluff and neither relenting, an ax swipe and two toes later, Poppy (what we call him) learned a valuable lesson: his brother was as stubborn and ornery as he was. Or when he, as little boy, decided that he would no longer be called William. He went to school and told his teachers and every classmate that "from this day forth, call me Billy Joe." So they did and we did, and the road he lived on for sixy plus years, is named Billy Joe Road.
At one point, while the family was gathered in the waiting room, I stopped to take note of the different conversations going on. Although we were a distraught family, there was laughter and pleasantry. Even though we got together more than most families, I wondered why we hadn't more.
This post has not much to do about Hard Work U, except for my grandfather was one of the best rolemodels I had to learn how to work hard. I held his hands this weekend and felt their roughness, callouses so thick they will never wear thin. This will be a difficult week for me and my family. I hope it's a great week for Poppy as he not only gets to go to heaven but gets to listen to how we admire and love him.

New Bookstore, Fun Project

Some of the most fun and interesting projects of the campus make their way to my desk, and I am not being facetious. One case in point, is the College's new bookstore website. Currently, the College Bookstore is receiving a much-needed makeover, including new track lighting, wood displays and cubbies, and of course new flooring. The improvements will finally bring the bookstore to the present. (Before I always felt as if I had stepped back into the 80's to shop for my collegial gear.) With the new look comes a new web presence, and my office was asked to stage a photo shoot for the apparel. One of my students in love with fashion immediately stepped up for the task. She researched catalogs, which I'm sure she hated!--now comes the satire. She ironed all the clothing until it was camera ready, as well as coordinated several students to take part in the shoot. To say the least, I know they had fun, and now the hope is that the College may have an updated bookstore website that really shows off the clothing. The newly-improved Bookstore will re-open the first week of August, just in time for the fall rush. The Bookstore website should follow shortly. Click http://www.cofo.edu/bookstore.asp to see the before, check back to see the after.

Ideas that Deserve More Thought

There's a lot to be said these days about living within you means, spending wisely, and avoiding government bailouts. Visit almost any news site and read hints about saving money on groceries to handling college tuition Weighing the Price and Value of Colleges. There are many individuals weighing in on the current recession, some with practical ideas. I'm not usually in the business of plugging politicos, but former Speaker Newt Gingrich's concepts for prosperity actually make some sense. Last Friday, he addressed the American Legislative Exchange Council and shared with them practical ideas of how to get Americans inspired to achieve three things for the nation: safety, prosperity and freedom. To do that, he insists, that we must rethink litigation, regulation, taxation, education, health, energy and infrastructure.
Read the outline of his full speech here.

He uses College of the Ozarks as a reference for improving higher education, while instilling the positive characteristics, such as work ethic, that made the United States a prosperous nation. While it would be difficult to translate the C of O work program for a state institution, there should be some thought as to what hybrid would be successful at the public level.

Student Writes a Portrait of Our Heroes

Just had to share this with everyone. C of O student Stephanie Ebling wrote this on the trip to Normandy for the 65th Anniversary of D-Day. Twenty C of O students accompanied ten WWII veterans for the trip. As you will learn, after reading Stephanie's diary entry, it was a life changing experience for both generations. Stephanie beautifully describes the men from the Greatest Generation. Please read and enjoy--simply precious.

Portrait of Our Heroes
By Stephanie Ebling

These are richly distinguished men whose poignant memories bring to life another age in our hearts. We taste the lives they once lived through their stories, but we can never understand. We only drink in the graciousness of their presence, their humble dignity, their wisdom, and an unyielding certainty that gives them each a gentle type of authority. This quiet gravity is like a mystery that draws us to them, in awe of the lives they have lived.

Their honor has been earned and appointed them, but they are burdened with the weight of the memories that still silently haunt them, that still isolate them from their wives, their families, and a younger generation. The fears these recollections keep alive are clearly a part of the sacrifice that they were proud to make. These memories are the enemy that stayed with them, following them home and through their lives all these years. This enemy remained after their uniforms were put away, after their weddings, after their babies were born. This enemy was there while they paid off their mortgages, and still there after the last child went off to college. And I think that the clarity of purpose in the war they were involved in has helped to quiet these fears over time…a certainty that must come with such a just cause. Surely that understanding has helped them as they bravely fought these ghosts of the past, making them stronger each day, year after year, decade after decade. Their faith has been strengthened by practice, and now, as old men, it is clear to me that today, they are at their strongest. And so now I realize something very unexpected. They are greater men now than when they jumped out of a plane or charged off of a Higgins boat 65 years ago. For although their bodies are slowly failing, what is left is a priceless outcome that must certainly come from such a lasting sacrifice—gentle, selfless strength. The kind of strength that makes you wonder what the hell you will ever do for anybody that will give you the right to tread the earth for another seventy years and deserve to enjoy it with such vivacious relish, this passion and fulfillment that each of these men seem to have in common.

National Trend--Colleges Launch Nursing Programs to Ease Shortage

Just realized a trend. Nursing programs seem to be popping up like mushrooms around the country. As the Wall Street Journal reported June 12, 2009 (Recession Helps Nursing Shortage, At Least for the Moment ), long-term projections indicate that the nursing shortage will widen over the next decade as the economy improves and the current, aging work force retires.

It appears that colleges and universities are responding have been responding to this need by launching nursing programs. Nancy Spector, Director of Regulatory Innovations for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing says she is hearing from state boards that a trend for new programs is occurring.

College of the Ozarks, located near Branson, Mo., recognized the need for nurses in 2003, and couple of million dollars later launched a BSN program Fall 2007. The first cohort of C of O’s Nursing Program will graduate May 2010, and the newly-pinned nurses will then take NCLEX-RN tests and be able help ease the shortage in the Ozarks region. The College’s program is one of eight Missouri programs (some BSN, some LPN) launched in the past two years.

"Letting His Light Shine"

Admired, loved, respected, confident, and trustworthy—these are just a few words used by family, friends, and fellow soldiers to describe Staff Sgt. Justin Copley, College of the Ozarks graduate.
Copley, a resident of Plato, Missouri, graduated from C of O in 2006 with a degree in Business Education. Upon completion of the Army ROTC program, he entered the force as a military policeman and while stationed in Iraq has strongly influenced the troops, the Iraqi police, and the people of the Ishaki district.
Though Copley received no pressure to enter the military, he was doubly inspired by his father and brothers’ involvement. His father, 1st Sergeant Michael Copley, had instilled the Seven Army Values in his sons throughout their childhood, and the seven boys were eager to live up to their father’s expectations. Sgt. Michael Copley’s death on July 19, 2004 left many broken, yet proud hearts, and he was honored in convocation at C of O. With all seven of his sons participating in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps Reserves, the patriotism of the entire Copley family is all the more apparent.
Sgt. Justin Copley’s outstanding soldier performance in Iraq has earned him fame in the media as well. The Missouri National Guard Publication Bear Facts published an article on Copley in its April 2009 issue (http://www.moguard.com/PublicAffairs/DisplayBearFacts.aspx?BFID=34). The article highlights his accomplishments, hardships, and rewarding experiences while in Iraq.

The phrase “When Justin?” included in the title of the article is not uncommonly heard to Copley. In Arabic “when” actually means “where is.” The genuine love and respect the Iraqi has for their friend leaves them asking “When Justin?” more often than not.
“The things everybody has done are more noteworthy than anything I’ve accomplished,” said Copley. “They’ve done so many positive things for these people and this country.”
Being admired, loved, respected, confident, and trustworthy has gotten Justin through the most difficult times while serving, and he continues to press on with the same values his father taught him years ago. Though one of many fulfilling their call to duty, he maintains a heroic status among his family, friends, fellow soldiers, C of O community, and country.

Choosy College Forced to Expand

With only one out of 12 applicants gaining admission, Kaplan Newsweek calls College of the Ozarks one of the “choosiest colleges” in the nation. The Office of Admissions processes thousands of applications and conducts many interviews yearly to select new crops of students.
With over four thousand applicants this past year, Dean of Admissions Marci Linson requested more space for interviews. The College of the Ozarks’ Admissions Office has been under renovation but is nearing completion after months of hard work by the C of O Construction Department.
The Admissions Office is temporarily located on the second floor of the Keeter Gymnasium and is permanently located on the second floor of the Administration building. The staff and student workers have been in the gym since April 15, but the renovation began in the fall 2008 semester.
It became increasingly noticeable that the Admissions Office was short on space, but after the rush of applicants this past year, the College decided to take action. With the sponsorship of the Alumni Association and the labor provided by the Construction Department, the much-needed expansion is well underway.
The Admissions Office first moved to the Administration building in the early 90s, when there were minor changes made, and in 1998, the office received two new walls for the director’s office. Since then, there have not been any major renovations.
When the new office is completed, it will house three new offices for interviews, a conference room, and storage space beneath the new addition with an elevator that will provide easy access to supplies and files. Additionally, Dr. Linson, the office manager, and administrative representatives will receive more work space. The old space will be utilized as an office for 16 student workers during the school year.
The renovation is set to be completed by August 1.

College Takes Steps to Protect Campers from Swine Flu

Gone are the day when head lice was the worst issue children headed to summer camp could face. Swine flu is a dirty word these days, especially at a summer camp. With young people flocking to retreats for summer fun this virus, also called H1N1, is on the minds of camp administrators, as well as parents of campers. Recently, Kanakuk, a Christian summer camp near Branson, Mo., discovered several campers who were infected with the virus, http://search.news-leader.com/sp?eId=100&gcId=32173586&rNum=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.news-leader.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcs.dll%2Farticle%3FAID%3D2009906270381&siteIdType=2 . Kanakuk quickly responded to the threat of an outbreak. At the same time, the incident reminded College of the Ozarks Camp Lookout Administrators of how easily something such as H1N1 can spread. So it put together a plan, under the guidlines of the Center for Disease control. During checkin, all campers have their temperature taken and parents must fill out a health assessment evaluation prior to coming. If parents answer yes to even one of the questions, they are asked to keep their child at home. Additionally, camp counselors have been advised on symptoms to watch for and how to properly disinfect camp facilities. Of course, any camper with flu-like symptoms is quickly isolated. Personal care and additional evaluation is provided by the College's physician and nurses, and contact is immediately made with parents. With these precautionary steps, parents can rest at ease andCamp Lookout campers can go about eating smores, swimming, and playing tag without having to worry if they could catch H1N1. Hopefully, the only thing they'll catch at camp is a baseball.

From School to College

Over the past 40 years thousands of people have passed through the “Gates of Opportunity” at the College of the Ozarks to venture into the campus. The gatehouse, which was built in 1967 has prominently featured “School of the Ozarks,” carved into its limestone face. Presently, the gatehouse is receiving an update and will read “College of the Ozarks.” The School of the Ozarks was officially renamed College of the Ozarks in 1990. As such, such signage changes are appropriate. The title "School of the Ozarks" holds many dear memories to alumni, as well as long-time college friends. Although the gateway to the campus will be slightly different, the college still holds fast to the philosophy on which it was founded, hard-work. What made The School/College of the Ozarks successful will continue so that the visitors coming through the “Gates of Opportunity” witness something spectacular. And the old name plate has certainly not been discarded, but rather will be relocated so that it remains a permanent part of the campus.

Camp Lookout Fun

When I was a little girl, I never got to go to summer camp. Pretty sad, huh. My family operated a small farm and there was never time for anything like that, let alone money to go. So my time was spent taming barn kittens, which provided hours of cheap entertainment. Too bad there wasn't a Camp Lookout back then. In 1990, College of the Ozarks opened a summer Christian camp for area children, ages 8-12, who didn't have the opportunity to attend a camp. Students participating in the College's Summer Work Program serve as camp counselors to this week-long Christian camp. And since it's opening, it's been a summer hit to many youngsters. There's no cost for the fun, and all children have to do is bring their clothes for a week. Everything else including sheets, pillows, tolietries, even a Bible are provided. One thing there isn't a shortage of is entertainment. The college students help plan loads of activities for the children, including water balloons and playing under water falling from a firehose via a firetruck. They even spend a day at Silver Dollar City, http://www.silverdollarcity.com/. Of course you can't have camp without a camp fire and s'mores. Surely, those are memories that will last a lifetime for some of the lucky kids who come to Camp Lookout.

A Regular Ozarks Fourth of July

Holiday's are great, especially the Fourth. The College was kind enough to let all staff off today in observance of the Fourth of July weekend. I'm sure most of us will do pretty much the same thing--eat hamburgers, hot dogs, and homemade ice cream, corral the children in a circle and light their sparklers for them, listen to aunts and uncles, sisters and cousins gab, watch the fireflies light up yard. While most of my family lives close enough to get together. One member will be absent for the celebration. My cousin, Justin, serves in the Army and is stationed in Fort Drum, NY. He'll leave for his second tour--this time to Afghanistan--this fall. His wife will give birth to their second child while he's gone. I wonder how she will feel not having him next to her during that time, and how we he feel not knowing the exact moment his baby girl arrived? It's difficult for me to comprehend the levels of sacrifice that a service man or woman gives. Their lives are on the line. They leave their family for months, missing the most momentous times. Thank God for the men and women willing to make these sacrifices.

Honor Veterans, Honor America

On Sunday, the College hosted its 20th annual Honor America Celebration. The weather was beautiful, 10 degrees cooler than the prior day without a cloud in the sky. Of course, many came out of the woodwork to enjoy the weather and attend this patriotic event. Among those in the crowd was a group of around 60 veterans from the Branson area veterans chapters. They took part in a special tribute to veterans and the military, which I feel was the highlight of the evening.

KOLR 10, the local CBS affiliate, covered the event and asked to interview me. The reporter asked me "With most Fourth of July events being canceled due to the economy, C of O is going full-speed ahead with its, pulling out all the stops. Why is that?"

"Forget fireworks; forget barbecue," I said. "The important thing to do is remember those who sacrificed so much to allow us the freedom we have today. That is what Independence Day is really about."

Not to grandstand, but I do believe that sometimes we (society) get overenchanted with the festivities associated with a holiday, and forget the reason why we are celebrating. Christmas is another good case in point.

If you were to sit down with someone like Buster Simmons, who served as a medic in WWII and landed in Normandy on D-Day, you may begin to appreciate the soldiers who risked it all and understand the holiday a little better.