TECHNOLOGY
american river
current
ARCurrent.com @ARCurrent Facebook.com/ARCurrentcom Vol. 64, Ed. 4 • Nov. 7, 2012
NEWS
Library to address study-room complaints AREAS ARE OFTEN MISUSED, AND ARC’S STUDENTS AND STAFF ARE LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS By Sergio Portela
THE RISE OF NEW DEVICES, SOCIAL MEDIA AND MULTISCREEN VIEWING ARE CHANGING THE WAYS OF TELEVISION
Photo and illustration by Daniel Romandia / romandd@imail.losrios.edu
HOW WE WATCH By Jaime Carrillo & Jeff Gonzales carrilj8@imail.losrios.edu gonzalj68@imail.losrios.edu
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f Joe Everyman owns a cellphone, there’s a good chance he never turns it off, even when he’s watching another screen. Because he is a responsible citizen, Everyman watches the presidential debates without fail. But because politicians have to spin, well, everything, he boots up his smartphone web browser to FactCheck.org to make sure he can shuffle through the political flotsam and jetsam. And of course, the next one-and-a-half hours would be a snore fest, if not for his trusty Twitter feed full of friends, rivals and comedians providing real-time commentary. What Everyman is experiencing is how most cellphone users consume media now – what media experts call multi-screen viewing. Far from the one screen tyranny of the past, the new multi-screen viewing phenomenon is more ubiquitous than you’d think. According to Pew Research Center, 52 percent of smartphone owners in the US incorporate their devices into their
SEE MULTI-SCREEN, PAGE 3
portels@imail.losrios.edu
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SPORTS
ARC’s Dusty Baker Center closes temporarily
THE COUNSELING OFFICE FOR ARC’S STUDENTATHLETES, NAMED AFTER FAMOUS ALUMNUS, IS WORKING TO ‘MODIFY ITS MISSION’ Daniel Romandia / romandd@imail.losrios.edu
t’s two days before a big test and you and a group of friends are in the library searching for a study room. It’s a weekday, so they are all full but you spot one with only one person. You politely ask that person to leave but he says, “I’m waiting for someone,” while they play Angry Birds on their smartphone. You take their word and continue to search without luck. You return to the room you had walked in before and the same student is still by himself playing Angry Birds. If you think you’re the only one with this problem, you’re not alone. According to an informal poll conducted by The Current over the course of a recent afternoon, more than a dozen students expressed concerns about the study rooms as well. On the library’s “how are we doing?” wall, one anonymous person wrote, “People use these rooms for cards, movies, sleeping. But the librarians refuse to get involved.” The post has since been taken down. After multiple complaints, the library has since put out an answer poster to the “how are we doing” wall. The library has answered the claims of the misuse of study rooms, stating it agrees that the rooms should be for academic use only and will now place this on the rooms and their website.
Students Voice Concerns John Prieto, an American River College student, has had problems finding a study room. “We’ve come up a couple of times
SEE LIBRARY, PAGE 2
A LOOK INSIDE
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The Dusty Baker Center, a counseling office for student-athletes, has a sign posted on its door since Oct. 12 claiming that the office is “closed today.”
PASQUALE’S
Pasquale’s, an Italian restaurant on Fair Oaks Boulevard, gets a four-star review.
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OAK CAFÉ Q&A
The Current speaks with the Brian Knirk of ARC’s Oak Café, a student-run restaurant on campus.
By Jessica Maynard & Sarah Scott maynarj@imail.losrios.edu scottse@imail.losrios.edu
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sign on the door of the Dusty Baker Center reads “closed today.” This sign has been hanging there since Oct. 12. Campus officials said the temporary closing of the center would allow time for administrators to modify its mission of how best to serve student-athletes. “It’s going to be more focused on counseling,” said Pam Walker, vice president of student services. According to Walker, the closing of the Dusty Baker Center was a collective agreement. Walker, Jeff Stevenson, the dean of counseling and Dawn Siracusa, the interim supervisor of the center, agreed that the center had too many athletes that needed help and inadequate space. “It was already too small the day we built it,” Walker said. Plans to reopen the center are in effect. “We were hoping to get this together before Dec. 1.” The Dusty Baker Center was opened on June 8, 2011 and was implemented to help provide student-athletes with support in reaching their goals academically and athletically. Student-athletes familiar with the center are used to dealing with Frankie Johnson, the student personnel assistant, and athletic counselor Michael Sachau. “It provides a much needed facility and a place where
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SEE DUSTY BAKER, PAGE 4
FACEBOOK HABITS The top five most annoying habits on Facebook, according to The Current’s editor-in-chief.