FRIDAY
80 80°/63°
SATURDAY
78 78°/63°
SUNDAY
78 78°/62°
Wednesday, september 19, 2018 Volume 181 number 1
NEWS BRIEFS By trissean mCDonaLD
Transfer Day to Bring recruiters to Campus Jump-start your transfer by meeting admissions representatives from schools like Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University, Otis College of Art and Design and Syracuse University. Representatives from nearly 50 colleges will be available to chat with students from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m on Thursday, Sept. 27 on the Quad next to Student Services.
Do you want a chance to win cash, exotic vacations, cool electronics, the latest fashions and possibly even a car? Your chance is here, because FremantleMedia is casting college students and professors to join special college tapings for popular game shows like “Family Feud”, “The Price is Right” and “Let’s Make a Deal.” Apply online at Fremantlecasting.com or call 818666-3606 for more information.
Man flashes student in fH Los Angeles County Sheriffs are seeking information about a man suspected of exposing himself to a female student who was waiting for a class to begin in a Franklin Hall classroom on Thursday, July 19 at 5:20 p.m. The suspect then ran out of the building. The man is described as a Hispanic male, 6 feet tall, 190 pounds, with short curly or wavy hair. He has a beard and a mustache and appears to be 27 to 30 years of age, according to a special bulletin from the L.A. County Sheriffs. If you have more information about the incident, please call (323) 953-4005.
students save with free software Downloads Currently enrolled students are eligible to download free software, including the Microsoft Office 2016 365 Suite, from LACC.edu. Students may visit LACC’s website and click on the “For Students” tab for download. Be sure to have your @student.laccd. edu or @faculty.laccd.edu email address to access downloads.
explore Campus Life Phi Theta Kappa, LACC Literature Society and the Chemistry Club are just a few of the groups recruiting members. The Associated Student Government (ASG) will host the event from Sept. 24 – 26 on the Quad.
The Voice of Los Angeles City College since 1929
GoinG, GoinG,
Gone In its place will be non-credit “supplemental” courses, embedded tutoring and other classes.
M
By tanya FLoWers anD meLissa CrumBy
ore than 150 math and English basic skills courses populate the online class schedule for fall semester. Next year, it will be a different story. California community colleges across the state are saying goodbye to assessment testing. By fall 2019, courses like “Math 110,” “Math 121,” “English 28,” “English 67” and “English 97” will no longer be offered for credit. These courses will be
4
scholarships
5
news sports
6-7 8
of students go on to complete a degree, certificate or transfer in six years.
An April 2016 study from Multiple Measure Assessment Project (MMAP) hints at problems for certain populations. The study showed only a small percentage of students of color enrolled in transferable courses. Data also suggest a large percentage of international students or students enrolled in English as a second language are people of color. According to the Student Success Scorecard, 70 percent of students who enroll directly into college-level courses transfer or graduate. Only 40 percent of students go on to complete a degree, certificate or transfer in six years. “The intent of [AB] 705 is that you are able to get out of math and English in a year,” said Vice President of Academic Affairs Dan Walden. “Instead of coming in and having to take four or five math courses, you only at most have to take two. But you wouldn’t even have to take it. You have the option to go directly into [math] 227 and while taking 227 you can take 158. And in one semester you get out.” Across community colleges in California 170,000 students enroll in remedial math a year and 110,000 drop out. Some educators say there is a correlation between the skills acquired in high school and success at the college level. SEE “AB 705” PAGE 6
sTAY On TrAcK: There’s an App for That By niCK moreLanD Hidden among the now millions of iPhone and Android apps is one made specifically to help you stay on track and meet crucial deadlines in your academic career. And the chances are, you probably don’t even know about it. As of the first quarter of 2018, Android users have roughly 3.8 million apps to choose from and Apple users about 2 million. It’s no wonder some apps may fall through the cracks. LACC became one of the many community colleges to provide the Gradguru app to its students this fall semester. This useful tool is free and available to any student with a smart phone. Everything you need to know about what’s happening at L.A City College is presented on this app. Deadlines, news, tips, reminders, even rewards for attendance and grade point average. These are just
some of the features of Gradguru. Too bad it’s underutilized. The college sent out a newsletter informing students of useful resources available to them a few weeks before the fall semester officially started. Included on this list was the app Gradguru yet few seem to have seen that email. There’s also a banner on the LACC website promoting the app, but that didn’t do the trick either. Of the 53 students informally surveyed, only three had even heard of Gradguru. Only two had actually downloaded and used it among the three. Turns out that of the roughly 20,000 students enrolled at L.A. City College less than 500 have downloaded Gradguru. That’s less than 3 percent. These are truly unfortunate statistics since the app does have much to offer. SEE “GRAD GURU” PAGE 7
photo by tanya floWers/CollegIan
Collegian staffers pull up Grad Guru on their smartphones. The app is intended to help students keep track of academic deadlines, financial aid and college transfer requirements.
Chemistry 3 Ceiling Sealed off to Keep Squatters Out By mattheW aLi
2-3
campus life
of students arrive unprepared for college-level English
sources: the Student Success Scorecard and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office
“voluntary.” In the latest quest to ensure student success, lawmakers have crunched the numbers and created Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705). They concluded that a student’s high school GPA can be a better predictor of success in college than assessment tests. Authors of the bill say it will speed up the transfer and graduation rate. Gov. Jerry Brown approved AB 705 in October 2017. Authors of the legislation say this will help fast track students who are enrolled in 114 community colleges in California. Their data show many students tested into remedial courses and dropped out before they ever enrolled in a transferable course. “The spirit of this law is about one really leaning into students’ capacity and if the students are eager to learn, our job is to really develop the traditions that will support them best,” said Laura Hope the executive vice chancellor for educational services and support from the academic affairs office at California community colleges chancellor’s office. “And then secondary, we need to rethink the way we are approaching developmental education, so that if a student has a learning gap, like not knowing how to multiply a fraction we need to get that to you just in time, rather than making you take a whole course.”
indeX opinion & editorial
85% 70% 40%
of incoming community college students arrive unprepared for college-level work in math.
Placement Tests, remedial courses Under the Knife Starting fall 2019, students have the right to enroll directly into transfer-level courses for both math and English. Placement testing will be a thing of the past.
Join a Game show, Win Big
$ $$
84 84°/64°
$
THURSDAY
$
$
$
81°/63° 81
$ $ $ $
los angeles
WeaTHer foreCaST
$
see pAGe 5
$
loS anGeleS WEDNESDAY
Collegian moRe than $30,000 in scholaRships aVailable to students
photo by WIllIam torres/CollegIan
Black smudges on a wall inside Chemistry Building, Room 3 have led professor Daniel Marlos and others to believe squatters are living inside the roof above the lecture hall.
Chemistry 3 may have someone or something living above the heads of students in the photography department’s lecture hall. Unless Spider-Man is registered for classes on campus, footprints ascending a classroom wall are unusual. Maintenance workers and campus sheriffs have taken steps to ensure who, or according to sheriffs a possible, whatever has been squatting between the basement and first floor of Chemistry 3 no longer has access to that area. The back wall of Chemistry 3 had about four feet of footprints that scaled the wall up to an opening in the ceiling where a panel is missing and the upper area was ex-
posed. Someone potentially could have used this as an access point to break into other rooms and offices in the Chemistry Building. “I found out this week from the sub-contractors that are working in the Chemistry Building to give us Wi-Fi access that they suspected that there was a person or persons that was sleeping in the ceiling of the lecture hall in Chemistry 3 and the evidence was that there were footprints on the wall of people going in and out,” said Daniel Marlos, vice-chair visual and media arts. “It’s kind of circumstantial evidence that we have, I don’t know that anybody has actually seen SEE “SQUATTERS” PAGE 6
sCAn Qr
CoDe To see oUr CoVerAGe of THe CoMMUnITY AnD BeYonD Or visit collegianwired.tumblr.com