Volume 77, Issue 1 | www.elaccampusnews.com | Wednesday, September 11, 2019 | Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Governor Newsom amends College Promise BY JUAN CALVILLO Staff Writer
Governor Gavin Newsom announced a change to the College Promise, from one year to two years tuition, during an event at East Los Angeles College on Aug. 29. The College Promise, once known as the governors fee waiver for enrollment, is monies that are available for students to pay for enrolling in community college. The event was just one part of Newsom’s “California for All” state budget, which was proposed early in 2019. The proposed budget covered increases in lower and higher level education, as well as monies for emergency readiness and the pay down of unfunded pension liabilities. For higher education, community colleges throughout the state will receive a proposed $402 million investment which includes the new College Promise of two years of community college tuition paid for first-time students. Newsom talked about the position of California and where its diversity has placed it. “You look around this room, this is America’s coming attraction folks. You know the future happens here first. Donald Trump eat your heart out,” said Newsom about the states promising and diverse people. He said that the country’s politics was currently about focusing on what was different, not what unites people. Focusing on optimism as the thing that was a uniting force
for all people. He focused on the community college aspect of life saying it was not a time but a mindset. He made it clear that community college was for anyone, at any stage of life and that its purpose was to add to, and advance people. Newsom said that students in community college were doing something special.
“You look around this room, this is America’s coming attraction folks. You know the future happens here first. Donald Trump eat your heart out.” GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
“You are making dreams real here,” he said. Newsom also touched briefly on the fact that the College Promise was not nearly enough. He said things like, text books, transportation and housing were also important to take a look at for students. “This is just the beginning of the journey,” Newsom said. He said the full cost of attending college would be something that would need to be talked about in Sacramento but didn’t specify a timeline. Assemblyman Miguel Santiago gave background on the battle for
the College Promise. “We started this a long time ago, when we were here on the community college board,” Santiago said. “When we went to the legislature, he (Newsom) was Lieutenant Governor, but very few people remember that he signed off very quickly when we started talking about free community college. And that was one year. But, boy, talk about a guy who makes a commitment on a campaign trail and then follows through.” Santiago said that Newsom had talked about a debt-free education and that through his proposed plans has been able to achieve it. He said that every student that went through the community college system had their lives changed and that through the College Promise, first time students, returning students, and more Californians can change their lives by getting schooling. ELAC’s Associated Student Union president, Brian Ha and a recipient of the college promise, Jocelyn Campos, gave brief speeches before the Governor’s announcement. Both talked about the impact that the College Promise had on their college careers. Ha said that he was allowed to flourish as both an academic and a student leader during his time at ELAC and that he attributed much of that to the College Promise. Campos echoed a similar sentiment saying her experience with the program gave a sense of empowerment and allowed her to stay focused on school. Academic Senate President Jeffery Hernandez said that
CN/JULIE SANTIAGO
GOVERNOR IN TOWN—Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, visited East Los Angeles
College to announce an early campaign promise to make two years of college free for firsttime students. something as momentous as the College Promise was once said to be impossible. He said that despite this, it was happening and that it was something
that was unique in the nation and that despite it being a set program it is helping students succeed. He said many of the district colleges would benefit but that it
UPS partnership to offer training for rehab youth BY VICKY NGUYEN Staff Writer
CN/STEVEN ADAMO
NO CCTV—One of the functional cameras located on the third floor of the E7 Vicky Chang Career and Technology building. Complaints have been filed regarding faulty cameras.
Camera system requires more attention BY JUAN CALVILLO Staff Writer East Los Angeles College has over 400 functioning security cameras throughout the campus, with a majority of them being digital in quality. With the fall season starting and day turning to night sooner, the idea of safety is paramount. Not having a satisfying answer to whether or not a security camera system is working can be frustrating for students. The functionality of the security system at ELAC was in question after the 2019 Associated Student Union elections were marred by vandalism of one of the candidates election posters. Anthony Dominguez, from the ASU, said a request was made for camera footage of the incident, but was told that access could not be given. During the election incident, Sheriff Deputy Elizabeth Elias said that the sheriff's department was approached by Dean Sonia Lopez of ASU. Lopez asked for the help of the sheriff’s department in obtaining footage of the incident. Elias said that despite having rough estimates on the time frame of the incident, the footage could not be found. Nghi Nghiem, associate Vice President of administrative services, said that the procedure for acquiring footage from the
security system must start with a request that is made by the sheriff’s department to the Information Technology department. “When I spoke to my technician last week, he informed me that he wasn't able to locate the footage because it had past the retention period,” said Nghiem. As of right now, the retention period for video footage from the campus security cameras is about a week due to the limited hard drive space for the system. The system records, then when it reaches its limit, it begins to record over the oldest footage and the cycle begins again. Nghiem said that the ELAC campus has more cameras than most colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, and that there are no decoy cameras on campus. Nghiem said that the campus is almost entirely covered by digital cameras that allow for much clearer pictures. He said that only one building still has analog cameras, but that it is a tiny percentage of cameras compared to number of digital cameras. Nghiem clarified that if a student looks up and sees a camera, then they are being recorded despite the type of camera. He also said that the cameras are not there to monitor students. Nghiem said that like all equipment, sometimes the cameras may go down. Maintenance is
started as soon as a report of a down camera is given. The camera system is not monitored consistently enough to know when a camera may be down. This is why a service request is usually how down cameras are addressed. He added that at times the cameras are susceptible to the outside environment causing blurry or hindered quality and that is when maintenance must address the situation. Nghiem said that the department roughly cheacks cameras at least every month by “pinging” the IP addresses of the cameras. All cameras are on an internal server that can’t be accessed from the outside. This program checks to make sure that the camera system is working or if it needs to be addressed. “I tell my team that at least once a month, you need to go ahead and run the pinging to make sure that everybody is talking back to us,” said Nghiem. This preventative maintenance coupled with reports of cameras not working are key to keeping the system working. Myeshia Armstrong, Vice President of administrative services, said that the number of cameras on campus also needs to be taken into account. Having such a high number allows for multiple points of view. For full version, visit elaccampusnews.com
For youth in juvenile rehabilitation camps, finding work upon release can be a daunting task. To address this issue, East Los Angeles College has been working with the Los Angeles County Probation and United Postal Service to provide youth with job opportunities in the logistics industry after discharge. The creation of the 10-week, three-course program was led by ELAC logistics professor Leonardo Medina. Initially offering one course last fall to Camp A ff l e r b a u g h , a rehabilitation center in La Ve r n e , t h e program has now been expanded to three leadership courses. The program has turned out to be a total of eight students who have been hired to UPS after the completion of the program. Medina developed the program to meet the demands
“Nobody says that their goal is to make it to adult prison. There’s goals to provide for (them), and I think a program like this offers them hope for a better tomorrow.” JESUS CORRAL
Senior Director of Education Services
of the logistics industry, the secondfastest growing industry in the country. Specifically, he wanted to focus on giving students in the program soft skills in addition to technical skills. “Time and time again, the greatest skill that is lacking in the industry is leadership,” said Medina. “They (schools) teach young people how to take tests and quizzes and papers and all this wonderful stuff. But in the end they’re realizing they’re coming out pretty smart, but they need to learn how to take initiative, how to be self-starters.” The partnership with UPS ensures students are being trained with the necessary skill set to work for UPS and provides an opportunity for employment. “ T o have an opportunity to earn work experience upon release is an important component and a huge selling point for young people in the program,” said LA County Probation Senior Director of Education Services Jesus Corral. “It’s one thing to talk about something. This program has the education pieces and it connects the employer as well,” said Corral. With the success of the program so far, is set to expand to another campus, Camp Dorothy Kirby in Commerce starting Oct 21. “Nobody says that their goal is to make it to adult prison. There’s goals to provide for (them), and I think a program like this offers them a hope for a better tomorrow,” said Corral. The program received an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties.
really was important to ELAC. “This kind of new law is particularly valuable for East LA college,” Hernandez said.
Good Burger Pop-Up
Page 6
News Briefs Career Cafe
The Career and Job Services Center will host an information workshop with career counselors sponsored by Starbucks tomorrow at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the E7 quad.
Blood Drive
Cedars-Sinai will host a blood drive on Sept. 16 and Sept. 17 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the central quad near the bookstore.
South Gate Club Rush There will be a club fair on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Gate campus.