Echo Times

Issue date: 12/9/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Shawn Mehrens Spectators soak in the sun and the sounds of a MAMA sponsored concert outside the College of Marin Student Center at the Kentfield campus, earlier this year.

College of Marin is a community college. We all know that. With "community" being half of the description of what we are (the other half clearly being "college"), why is it that many students are having trouble finding a place for themselves here?

"Most students are set up to get out of here in two years," says Diane Ascher, a student who has come back to school, "I don't have any immediate plans to get out of here, and it seems as if the people who are on a fast track to get out are the ones who are paid attention to."

And as for the students that are on that fast track? Well, most are so concerned with their plans to get out that they have no interest in creating a community for themselves here - why create a community if you're going to leave in the near future?

The problem seems to get worse as more students are coming to COM for two years to achieve their general education requirements for other schools in a financially sound manner. More students are coming and going, and are creating a constantly changing environment and community. In order to pull COM back into a place of community and unity, Jay "Jaybird" Alderson has been working to bring together COM's students and faculty.

Jaybird, and MAMA, or Marin Art and Music Alliance, has been the power behind this fall's surprise hit, Thursday's concerts on the lawn. After a run of six concerts in a row, the shows are currently on a small hiatus.

MAMA surprised everybody after having a brief but successful run. In the beginning, they were underestimated. "They said 'you probably won't be able to do it.'" Jaybird said of the original reaction by school officials. "But I did. And we're just getting started."

Initially, Jaybird had just been mentioning the idea of the concerts to members of the faculty and staff to see what they thought. He then pitched the idea to Jon Gudmundsson, a friend of Jaybird's and a staff member at COM. Gudmundsson was immediately supportive of the idea. "It was just me and Jon, I found the bands, he brought the equipment, and it was hard to get the advertisement out, and we had problems. We were completely underestimated," Jaybird explained "but when we started getting it going, people started diggin' it."

Continued...

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