2016 Combined

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Ovid Vickers, retired East Central Community College English instructor and longtime weekly newspaper columnist signs copies of his second book, ''Notes in the Margin: A Collection of Columns About East Central Community College," du.ring the college's annual Homecoming festivities scheduled Saturday, Oct. 15.

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done a good job of continuing the institution's success. "When I started working here, there were about 800 students here. Now there are well over 2,000," Vickers said. "The college has grown tremendously. I think that we have a president who has a vision, and I think that he is very much interested in the growth of the college and also in turning out a worthy stu dent." Since starting his teaching career at the college back in 1955, Vickers and his family have left an indelible impres sion on the school. All he and his wife's three children grad

uated from ECCC, and the school's fine arts center bears his name. He said that some people underestimate the impor tance of two-year institutions but that East Central bas been at the forefront of launching secondary educa tion for people across the state. He illustrated his point by recounting the story of an ac quaintance in Newton who was hesitant to consider ECCC for her son, who was graduating high school, but was surprised when Vickers informed her that her doctor had graduated from ECCC.

"Poople have a tendency to dismiss community colleges as not being as important as senior institutions, but as feeder schools they're great," Vickers said. "And Missis sippi bad one of the first com munity college systems in the United States, and other states, over the years, have come to Mississippi to ob serve what \Vas going on here when they started their O\Vn community college systems. So the community college system in Mississippi has been a national marvel." For information about pur chasing the book, call the col lege at 1-877-462-3222 or visit

hance the school's mission of providing educational oppor tunities for lifelong learning. Vickers said that one of the most important changes at the school have been in the realm of technology. "The great changes have been online education; that's been the big thing because students no longer have to come to the campus. AB long as they've got a computer in their bedroom, they're in col lege," he said. Vickers has personally known all of the college's presidents except the first one, and he said that current president Billy Stewart has