OPINION 2
SPORTS
ARTS
Street vendors getting harassed by police for the way they live.
ELAC football team loses on Saturday with 16-14
Laura Aguilar’s life’s work is the focus of exhibit
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Volume 74, Issue 2
Single copy free - additional copies 50 cents
Wednesday, september 20, 2017
www.elaccampusnews.com
CSU subtracts algebra: Opens opportunity for non-STEM majors in colleges BY STEVEN ADAMO Staff Writer In an effort to help students take relevant math courses for their degree, the California State University system dropped intermediate algebra as a requirement last month. The new rules go into effect in the fall of 2018. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the California Community College system, said about three-fourths of those who transfer to four-year universities are nonScience, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics majors. “Intermediate algebra is seen as a major barrier for students of color, preventing too many from completing degrees… they should be able to demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills by taking statistics or other math courses more
applicable to their fields,” Oakley said. According to data collected from California State University, 28 percent of freshmen are lacking math skills that are typically learned in high school. “I’d like to see intermediate algebra dropped as a requirement for earning an associate degree because it has become a barrier, especially for first generation students and students of color who often place into remedial classes,” Oakley said. One option available to students looking to brush up their math skills is the Latina Completion Transfer Academy, a program that’s exclusive to East Los Angeles College. “Our main goal is to help students transfer,” Alicia Prieto, one of the LCTA’s representatives. “We also provide workshops throughout the semester to help students distress.” Those who enroll into t h e
LCTA program have a number of benefits. Textbooks and calculators are available to students, as well as mentors, counseling every semester and in-class tutors. The LCTA’s in-class tutors take the course along with the student in order to understand the teacher’s teaching methods to better assist the student. Though the program is named specifically to help Latinas, Prieto said that it is open to people of all backgrounds who are struggling to pass the courses required to transfer. Romeo Lopez, who works at the Male Leadership Academy located in the same office as the LCTA, also graduated with the help of LCTA. Lopez, a single father, was having difficulty passing his statistics course. “Because of the LCTA, I was able to pass statistics and move on to UCLA,” Lopez said. The LCTA program was created in 2015 with the help of the Student Equity Advisory Committee. In the committee’s October 2016 agenda,
it said that the majority of students enrolled in the program passed their courses, with about 40 of their students graduating in the summer of 2016. Lopez said an important factor was the night classes they offered. “Most of our students have other responsibilities other than school, which is why we offer all of our classes in the evening,” Prieto said. According to the current schedule, the LCTA has math classes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. They also offer classes in biology 3 and English 101/103. To apply for the LCTA program, students must have 30 units or more toward a certificate, degree and/or transfer, and qualify for Math 115 or above. For more information, students can visit the Latina Completion Transfer Academy at the Student Services Annex D7 building, Monday-Thursday 9am to 7 p.m. and Friday at 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Enrollment dip discussed during budget meeting BY DORANY PINEDA Staff Writer The College Budget Committee reviewed the enrollment outlook for the fall 2017 semester on Monday and found it had decreased. The Fall 2017 Credit Enrollment Comparison found a nine percent dip in student enrollment this semester compared to enrollment in 2016’s fall semester. The drop from fall 2016’s 30,011 students to the current 25,585 is due mostly to a low unemployment rate and a problematic Student Information
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System roll-out, according to the Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Full Time Equivalent Student Projections report. The loss of enrollments is approximately 1,500 FTES. Vice president of student services Julie Benavides said that the census numbers reported in this semester’s enrollment should rise slightly, as administrative workers are putting in a lot of extra overtime to manually input student documents. But administrators are making other efforts to remedy the negative effects of SIS’s shakey implementation at the start of this semester. “A couple of strategies that
we’re planning to put into place [to boost enrollment] is something that’s called boom days, or a boom festival, and we need everybody’s help,” Benavides said to the committee. “We’re going to really try and capture enrollment for the late start in October and adding in additional courses for students to fill,” said Benavides. The Boom Festival, which is set to happen next week
Club Rush wek continues today and tomorrow at the E3 quad area from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m..
“We’re going to really try and capture enrollment for the late start in October and adding in additional courses for students to fill.” JULIE BENAVIDES
Vice Presidnet of student services
and the following, is an opportunity for departments to promote themselves and fill up classes that are being offered for the second session, Benavides said. Eighty-one late-start classes, with a possible 10 more, are being offered to students as another method of boosting class enrollment, according to a
board member. Also on the agenda was the status of the staffing pattern for Human Resources Committee policy, which dean of institutional advancement Ruben Arenas said little work has been done on. “We fell victim to the same sort of process. In other words, we lost about half of our staff over the summer, so the prioritization on that became a little bit lower,” Arenas said. He suggested to the committee that they make it a goal over the next year to complete the staffing pattern, and to develop an interim approach. Several committee members asked about the staffing by the
Workshop that focuses on leadership development, organizational skills and healthy lifestyle is available to students today at noon in E1-189.
committee last year, to which Jeffrey Hernandez from the Academic Senate responded, saying that they were reviewed but not to the satisfaction of everyone involved. “Rather than continue to go back, we’re going to revise the hiring policy and include in it an up-to-date staffing pattern,” Hernandez said. Part of the issue is that a lot of the staff who are being hired are in information technology and infrastructure, but not enough in admissions or the academic departments, faculty member Jose Ramirez said. The next Budget Committee meeting will be Oct. 16.
ELAC’s volleyball team will play against Cerritos College on Friday at 6 p.m. at Cerritos Community College and Glendale Community College on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Glendale College quad.