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Collegian Intramural sports - alIve and kIckIng at lacc see Page 8
los angeles
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 volume 180 number 5
the voice of los angeles City College since 1929
Union Employees Protest District Hiring Practices The American Federation of Teachers Los Angeles College Faculty Guild descended on the Board of Trustees’ monthly meeting to protest the overwhelming number of non-union employees at the nine schools in the Los Angeles Community College District. By Jasmine JerniGan and KimBerly Fisher
Photo by AnwAr torres/CollegiAn
MAN BEHIND THE MASK: When 17,000 Los Angeles Clippers fans fill the Staples Center arena, Chuck, the California Condor is a big part of the NBA sideline fun. But getting there was a leap for Guy Jackson. His story is featured in the upcoming edition of the Collegian Times Magazine -- on campus newsstands soon.
Hispanic High School Blowouts Remembered By chris arGUeTa There is an unsung, forgotten activist from 50 years ago, a hero who emerged to ensure Hispanic students in Los Angeles and across the country had a voice in the fight for their education. Fifty years ago, Salvador ‘Sal’ Castro led 15,000 Hispanic activist students, faculty, and members of the community to walkouts of their high schools and screamed “No More!” The late Sal Castro passed away in 2013 at the age of 79. He spent many of his early years in Mexico, but was born in Los Angeles. He returned to L.A., graduated from Cathedral High School and attended LACC before transferring to Cal State Los Angeles to earn his bachelor’s degree. He first began his teaching career at Belmont High School before the LAUSD forced him out with a transfer to Lincoln High School because he allowed students to speak Spanish in the classroom. It was prohibited at the time. At Lincoln High, he saw firsthand how the LAUSD treated Hispanic students. If they spoke Spanish in the classroom, they risked receiving detention or suspension. The curriculum did not include the study of Hispanic students’ culture or history. It caused the dropout rate to soar to 60 percent in East Los Angeles high schools in 1967, according to the L.A. School Report. Even if students managed to graduate and attend a college or four-year university, the same problems they faced in high school followed them. Neither the government nor schools would change, so Castro took action. From March 1 to March 8, 1968, over 15,000 students from seven schools across L.A. walked out in protest of the unfair treatment Hispanic students faced. They demanded an equal education to make sure students of Hispanic heritage had better opportunities to graduate and apply for colleges.
“Chicano student leaders from the historic Eastside region of Los Angeles demonstrated the power of nonviolent resistance through El Movimiento,” said Mónica Garcia, school board president of the LAUSD in a message on the district’s website. “Part of the Latino civil rights movement for sociopolitical empowerment, and raised consciousness of the Mexican-American experience in the U.S.” Police arrested 13 organizers of the walkouts, and Castro was among them. He was seen as the leader, and served time in jail longer than anyone else. More than two months later, he was released, however, the LAUSD revoked his teaching credential. Eventually, the district reinstated Castro. Around the same time, the LA. School Board began to listen to some of the students’ demands. It was a slow burn, but years later, Hispanic students are thriving in L.A. schools. As of 2013, the LAUSD states that 74 percent of its students are Hispanic, and a multicultural environment exists for all to come and learn. This year, Sal Castro and the actions of thousands of activists are remembered and honored. Sal Castro Middle School, located within the halls of Belmont High School where he once taught is named for him. The LAUSD organized a ceremony at East L.A. College to commemorate Castro’s contribution by presenting 11 teachers and counselors with the Sal Castro Award last February. The winners are from the schools that participated in the 1968 walkouts. “These teachers represent everything students were fighting for 50 years ago,” said José Huerta, the local district east superintendent of the LAUSD during the ceremony at East Los Angeles College. “They wanted teachers that could connect with them, they understand who they are, their culture, and can guide them to succeed.”
Photo Courtesy of roCKero
Sal Castro at the Isla Vista Theater for the screening of the film Walkout on May 17, 2006. From March 1 to March 8, 1968 Salvador ‘Sal’ Castro led 15,000 Hispanic activist students, faculty, and members of the community to walkouts of their high schools in protest of the unfair treatment Hispanic students faced.
Employees from several of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) campuses convened at the Student Union on May 9, 2018 to protest what they called district-wide union busting. Most prominent among them were members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Los Angeles College Faculty Guild. They arrived in solidarity wearing blue shirts bearing the guild’s logo and the words “I AM UNION” on their backs. They filed into the room by the dozens. They meant business. AFT guild members said they were protesting unfair practices by district leaders, like the hiring of student workers over qualified union workers. “Students have a role on our campus,” said Vilma Bernal, Los Angeles Mission College AFT chapter president, while drecrying student worker’s access to faculty member’s classified information. “We need accountability on this.” The district employs 3,000 unclassified workers and 1,300 classified workers, according to Ber-
nal. She also says the LACCD paid student workers $2.5 million in October of last year. “They are using students in lieu of hiring permanent employees,” said Velma J. Butler, president of the AFT Los Angeles College Faculty Guild. “A student worker is supposed to come to work for a few hours [and] then pick up a book. This is abusing the student.” However, unlike classified workers, student workers do not receive medical or retirement benefits. “[LACCD has] students doing the work of permanent employees,” Butler said. “They have students taking on the same responsibilities as full time employees – without benefits. Their focus needs to be on school.” This issue is causing frustration among students. Many say they are upset with the quality of customer service and lack of knowledge. “The Financial Aid Office is hell, specially when [workers] are all student workers,” said Jessie Hernandez, a psychology major. “Sometimes they don’t know what they are talking about, and that’s how my file got messed up.” Jackie Ambridge, senior secretary at Los Angeles Mission College, says the influx of students doing classified work is a problem that extends beyond customer service. “Student workers [have] access to information they should not have access to,” Ambridge said. “[They are] doing assignments that are reserved for classified workers.” LACC Admissions and Records Assistant Brian Spoelstra offers up a solution. “We need to replace classified employees to serve students better,” he said.
Flagship goes doWn By sorina sZaKacs Water damage, plaster falling from the ceiling, outdated mid-century modern furniture (not collectible), for 21st century students, original dirty grout in bathrooms and old cracked concrete floors, that look nothing like the shiny ones at East Los Angeles College are what one finds in the photo department at L. A. City College. And there are rodents in the darkrooms and that makes the Chemistry Building basement a pathetic learning place for photographers. Students can choose between brilliant professors and great programs at Los Angeles City College, offered in an old, patched-up campus infrastructure. Or, they could enroll in classes at shining Santa Monica College, the stateof-the-art East Los Angeles College, or the suburban Pierce, with its cafeterias and sports teams. There were hoped for improvements when both journalism and photography were set to leave their traditional campus home. The plan was that all three disciplines, art, journalism, and photography would move to the modernized Da Vinci. BuildLACCD renovated the Chemistry Building to house the art department temporarily. They spent $5,096,480 for the entire building, according to the BuildLACCD report, but it is unclear how much of that amount was used strictly for the photo department, especially for the darkrooms. Part of the visual and media
arts department – the photo department will be left behind next summer when the Da Vinci Hall modernization project is complete and the art and journalism departments move. Da Vinci Hall will be completed by June 2019, at a total cost of $28,377,822. There will be no new darkrooms in the building as the initial plans show. Instead, the original darkrooms in the Chemistry basement will continue to serve photography students as is. The decision to eliminate darkrooms from Da Vinci comes from decades-long discussions about plans for the building’s modernization. The buying power of the bond money decreased and now there are no funds to construct them. The Chemistry Building renovation was an expensive project, but the largest expenditures went SEE “VAMA” PAGE 6
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