Further improvements for the “Habits of Mind” campaign were discussed at the cabinet meeting last Monday.

Also discussed were updates on the Talon Marks research committee.

Follett is collaborating with the Associated Students of Cerritos College and enabling access to the bookstore to promote this campaign.

Follett is the company that owns the campus bookstore on Cerritos as well as the bookstores on many other college campuses.

It will provide 12,000 free promotional bookmarks for Spring 2009.

“We (the ASCC) were thinking of using cards to promote the campaign,” said ASCC President Michael Barrita, “but after much discussion we realized it would be better if we used bookmarks.”

Most students use bookmarks when they are reading or studying, noted Barrita, therefore it would be much more effective to use bookmarks instead or cards.

The distribution of the bookmarks is still undecided.

They will either be placed on counters inside the bookstore for students to pick up, or will be placed inside bags when students make a purchase.

Another way the ASCC will go about in trying to instill the campaign into students’ minds is by placing one of the campaign’s logos on the purchase bags the bookstore provides.

Barrita stated, “The bag possibility still needs more thorough planning, so it might take some time to make it possible. We (the ASCC) will definitely keep pushing to make it happen though.”

Ideas such as utilizing the “Habits of Mind” campaign logos as screensavers and background pictures on the computers on campus are still undergoing planning.

“We need to talk to the computer technicians and anyone else we may need to speak with to see how we can make it possible,” said Barrita. 

He added, “This campaign is basically students making their own calls. They decide how they want to go about in planning and practicing their study habits.”

Party whip Juan Guerra added, “I think it is a really good campaign. The ones who benefit from it are the students. They will be the ones who get the most out of what this campaign introduces and tries to implement.”

Many students feel very gratified that the school is trying to encourage and find ways to help their students succeed.

“I’m glad the school is actually taking its time to try to help its students succeed,” said Maurina Torres, biology major. “My high school never tried campaigns like this one. I’m grateful.”

Barrita also requested updates on the Talon Marks committee.

This committee was formed in order to analyze, compare, and develop strategies to improve Talon Marks.

The members of this research committee read and compared other newspapers, such as UCLA and San Diego State, to the one Cerritos produces.

Its purpose is to use other college newspapers as examples of what Talon Marks should do and what stories it should be publishing.

Regulations and standards of other campus newspapers are also discussed and compared to the regulations and standards that Cerritos applies to its newspaper.

The Talon Marks committee met after the cabinet meeting to discuss improvements on the Cerritos campus newspaper.