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June 21, 1973 PHOENIX Page NineBY DOROTHY EVANSOn the morning of June 11, 1200 graduates filed down the aisles of the Albee Theater on DeKalb Avenue to receive Associate Degrees from New York City Community College in Brooklyn.In this commencement of twoyear, sixty-three credit programming, an observer could see that these graduates were all adults, many were black and one could realize that this day could have marked the end of a long struggle to obtain that piece of paper that would allow a human being to rise from just a job %u2014 or a job of degradation for many, to the beginning of a new career, a new future.The student who came fromMs. Evans is an employee in the English Department at N. Y. City Community College.A Chance to Riseanother country, with a minimum Knowledge of English, but great potential in Medical Sciences; can you imagine his pride in receiving an Associate in Sciences, or Medical Lab, He may have worked in maintenance, or in the laundry rooms of some hospital %u2014 lived in the squalor of a tenement. Today all this can be changed. He is prepared to take his State Boards. Can you imagine the difference in his life?According to Mr. George R. Cole, president of the Alumni Association, open enrollment was the subject of attack in a recent Sunday Supplement. Bastardized community colleges they called us. Big business would not have given many of us an opportunity to try, had it not been for community colleges.President Herbert Sussman replied that if we are a society of unknown fathers and questionablemothers, then the children have all come through.Mrs. Bernice Delgado, nursing graduate, spoke on %u201c SelfRespect.%u201d Pregnant, deserted by her husband, mother of two small children, and by necessity on welfare, Mrs. Delgado enrolled here as a night student four years ago. At this time, she had managed to secure a job as a medical secretary in Brooklyn Hospital. There was a bout with pneumonia, long hours of work and study. It wasn%u2019t easy to do all this and progress in school. But she did it. Today she is married to a fellow hospital employee, who is also a student at NYCCC.As an additional project she found time to organize the South Ozone Park Neighborhood Association and works with her local police precinct sending out evening street security patrols. Her summer activity program is afamily pnHpaunr Her husband and children all join in taking neighborhood underprivileged youngsters on bus trips %u2014 swimming, picnicing %u2014 many good times.Mrs. Delgado, though recently offered a job which she considers above her qualifications, rejected it so that she could acquire a basis for her dream %u2014 pediatric psychiatry and eventually a school for handicapped children.Throughout this theme of raising oneself by the bootstraps, there was an air of concern, the rumor of cutbacks in funding by the state, a change in structure, caused by state authorities who have been unresponsive to the needs of the Community Colleges in the past.Perhaps it is time that the Governor and the state take acloser look at we dedicated %u201c bastards.%u201dRnicnHoc cnoVt ------- %u2014 * ~ ~ qp W 2-------- terns ff* O have given our children nothing to hang on to. It seems that there is nothing left but the people. NYCCC represents dedicated people %u2014 students who,fight hard for their education. One need only to drive through Harlem or Bedford Stuyvesant to see the numbers of people on the street these hot days. There are no air conditioners here.How long has it been in this land of plenty since the ivy leaguers have had to live under the conditions of most of these people. With all these obstacles, could they have obtained their degrees.One thing brought out by Mr. Cole is that once students have graduated and risen from their slums, they must never forget. It is up to them to make things brighter for others than the past has been for them. And always remember that %u2014 %u201c It all started here!%u201dI Squibb Park| Vandals Victimover. We clean it up but it's a never-ending job,\the attendant said.%u201c Five or six years ago sanitation policemen started giving out summonses down here, for a short period of time, to violators of the curb laws and the problem was solved. That%u2019s what we need now.\rLet UsHear AboutLocal ParkBY LYNNE GRIFOiiLast week's Parks Probe column included a picture of a broken slide in Squibb Park that had all but its steps torn away. A visit to Squibb, located on Columbia Heights near Middagh St. has revealed that there are several other facilities that are in similar need of attention.Adjacent to the defective slide, the central part of which is now lying on the ground nearby, are the children%u2019s swings. A potentially hazardous situation exists there because several sections of the safety surfacing (rubber mats) under the swings have been torn up. The concrete is bare and waiting for tender, young knees.An examination of the adult swings showed that not only is the safety surfacing torn up and missing in several spots but, in addition, four of the six swings themselves are gone. Broken glass lay in several spots behind the benches at Squibb, but the play area seemed nearly free of other garbage.Anthony Moccia, a Parks employee who maintains Squibb Park, and the Middagh St. and Pierrepont St. playgrounds, stated that vandals are responsible for the missing safety surfacing. %u201c They pull them up and throw them over the fence down to Furman St.,\Moccia said he had sent in a requisition for replacements at least two months ago. A requisition has also been submitted for a new sliding pond to replace the broken one and for the adult swings.\other parks in the city,\have, however, recently pulled off slats from four benches that remain unrepaired.Also, on hot summer days, children and their mothers who visit the park must unfortunately go thirsty because the water fountain does not work and has not worked for several months.%u201cThe worst problem at the three Heights parks I take care of is the dog mess,\%u201c People let their pets go in the sand box and allGRAFFITSTES STRIKEAGAIN: The marble John F. Kennedy Memorial at Grand Army Plaza has become another statistic in the battle against graffiti in N.Y.C. It has already cost several million dollars to remove this %u201c street art%u201d from public places throughout the city.The Parks Department was contacted about the situation at Squibb Park and a spokesman for the Department confirmed the fact that the requisitions in question had been received and \not optimistic about how long it would take.Squibb Park has no recreational attendant and therefore no games are available there for the children's use. The Parks representative explained that this situation is caused by a severe shortage of funds.It would seem that Squibb Park will not receive the attention it needs before the summer brings scores of children to use its facilities. Unless, of course, several parents of children who visit the park regularly make their complaints heard by writing to Parks Commissioner Clurman, Arsenal Bldg., 830-5th Ave., N Y, N.Y. 10021. Send a copy of your letters to us too at: PHOENIX, 132 Clinton St, Brooklyn 11201.niiiiiiiima WIIIIHmHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHinillllllllillHlllllimilllllllillllllimillliiiiiimgiimiimiiimiimmiiiimit.il.......Problems