Rampage
Fresno City College Volume CXXI, Edition 5
therampageonline.com
November 2, 2011
Con Artist Poses as FCC Instructor By Jesse Franz Rampage Reporter
Throughout last summer, several Fresno City College students attended what they believed to be English and Political Science courses. Little did they know that the courses were part of a scam, aimed at stealing money from students, by self-proclaimed “con artist”, Jacklyn Murfree. Allegedly paying Murfree in cash, students attended the courses like any other given at Fresno City College. With the exception that the classes were often held at Starbucks in the Tower District, the course felt fairly routine for a number of students. However, after the summer courses came to a close and students tried to find transcripts of their grades, the credit they thought they were earning in the class proved nonexistent. Frustrated by not being able to find their grades on Web Advisor, students sought out advice from their school counselors. This is when the students first became aware that Fresno City College
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does not employ an instructor by the name of Jacklyn Murfree. There soon came a growing suspicion that the students had been scammed, until finally on Sept. 2, a report was officially filed with the State Center Community College District Police Department. Frantic, students turned to one of their only means of contact with Murfree, Facebook. But, when they ultimately got to her
Facebook page, they were greeted with a message posted by her, reading, “Hi, I’m Jackie and I’m a con artist.” Posted on Sept. 7, it was the last comment left by her to date. “I think we were all caught off guard,” said Vice President of Student Services, Chris Villa. The SCCCD Police Department, in conjunction with the Fresno Police Department, is con-
tinuing to look into the incident. Lt. Gaines of the SCCCD Police, said, “There’s follow up that needs to be conducted. That follow up, the purpose of it is to determine whether a crime has been committed, and what exactly happened. If a crime has been committed, it will be referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.” It’s not clear at this time how
Ramiro Gudino
many students fell victim to this scam, how much money she defrauded students out of, or even if Jacklyn Murfree was an alias or not. However, on her Facebook, she claims to be a North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University graduate from Parlier, California. A press release from July 3, 2009, does in fact list a Jacklyn Murfree as graduating from NC A&T in Spring 2009, but it still remains unclear whether that was the same person being investigated in this case. A search of past instances of this type of incident found that, to the best of our knowledge, no events like this have been recorded at FCC in the past. Villa, who is a 30
See Con Artist on page 5
ASG Legislative Vice President Impeached By Jordan Russell Rampage Reporter Fresno City College’s Associated Student Government voted 12-3 at its meeting yesterday to impeach Karlton Brown, the legislative vice president, for allegedly failing to perform his duties as outlined in the ASG constitution. “It’s a misunderstanding,” Brown said. “It’s a broken line of communication between me and my team.” ASG President Cindy Quiralte said that Brown’s performance has been unsatisfactory since he first took office in August. “According to the constitution,” she said, “there were specific guidelines that outlined things that had to be done since the start of the semester.”
FCC Fall Carnival
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Quiralte said the Senate originally felt that it was necessary to create a committee to review the role of LVP and whether or not it was being fulfilled. At that point, the creation of a contract was discussed. “The contract would have done exactly what the findings of the committee did, which was to highlight those things that were required in the role of LVP,” She said. “That would have allowed him to understand how he has not been fulfilling the role, as well as possibly extend an opportunity to show improvement.” The committee, however, concluded that a contract was unnecessary and did not follow the procedures of the constitution. Therefore, members of the Senate
voted to continue with the removal process. At a meeting on Oct. 25, ASG formally charged Brown with failing to create and monitor campus committees, attend ASG sponsored events, attend Executive Board and Student Senate meetings, or carry out requests of the president and senate. He was also charged with being tardy at 64 percent of Senate meetings. According to the ASG constitution, the legislative vice president is responsible for the formation and oversight of campus committees, a role claims he fulfilled. “I spoke to a few contact people on the committees, and they said everything was going good,” He said. “I do reports and I ask the students…even when I see them in passing, ‘How are your com-
Should Schools Get Tougher?
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mittees going? Let me know if job,” Gardner said. you have a problem.’” Brown also Brown explained that several stated that such endeavors should senators also failed to follow be more collaborative. “If I need certain office procedures and assistance, I will fall on my exec questioned why their actions board and my senators to assist were not subject to scrutiny. “Just me. That’s what we’re supposed think about it like this: why when to be – a team, a collective effort.” you look on that board do we see Senator Grisanti Valencia told some people following office a different version of events. “A procedures, and we see some lot of the heads of the commit- people are not?” He added. “If tees were contacting the president we see things…that aren’t workbecause when they contacted LVP ing, then there’s a problem in the Brown, he would never respond,” group, because everyone should she said. be supportive of others. Take the Senator Linda Gardner added personal aspects out of it and look that Brown’s “committees haven’t at it as handling business: I would been formed yet.” Additionally, go out of my way for anybody in Brown did not inform ASG of here, whether they’re doing their what he’s been doing. “So, we job or not, because my job is to set have to go through procedure if he’s not doing his See ASG Impeachment on page 4
FCC Science Presentation Sparks
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