Union El Camino College
March 3, 2011
Torrance, Calif.
Capoeira on Campus With Gov. Brown’s proposed budget cuts
WHAT’S NEXT FOR EC?
Rabiya Hussain Staff Writer
Mike Williams /Union Kevin Mercado, 18, film and theater major, demonstrates capoeira, a Brazilian fusion of martial arts and dancing.
In an effort to fix California’s economy, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a 6.8 percent budget reduction that would result in higher fees for students as well as a number of other changes to the California community college system. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, California’s economy is looking to correct a $25.4 billion deficit which would require spending to be cut by $12.5 billion while revenues will need to be increased to $12 billion. Funding to several sectors, including higher education will be slashed, which may mean a total loss of $1.4 billion. The California State University system and the University of California systems would lose $500 million in funding each whereas community colleges would lose $400 million, according to the CSBA. However, the extent of the cuts is dependent upon several factors that break the future down into three possible scenarios. The first of the three scenarios according to Jack Scott, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, would be the most beneficial to students. It would require voter approval of the proposed June tax package, which would temporarily extend high taxes, originally due to ex-
pire next year, as well as bring a $10 per-unit fee increase which would generate $110 million in revenue for community colleges. The price per unit at EC would rise to $36.
Sylwia Ozdzynski /Union Should the budget be approved, the price per unit at EC would rise from $26 to $36 per unit.
“Even though it’s not a great solution,” Scott said, “the ideal solution would be… to take the cuts that Gov. Brown recommends and to have those taxes extended so we’ll not have to reduce the money to community colleges more.” The second scenario would happen if the proposed June tax package fails and Proposition 98, which according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office “provides grade schools with a guaranteed funding source that grows each
year with the economy and the number of students,” is funded at a minimum. In this case, the Community College League of California estimates that the effect to EC in particular would be a cut of almost $11 million that would be balanced somewhat by a $10 per-unit fee increase, bringing the net reduction to EC’s funds to about $9 million. And lastly, if the tax package fails and Prop 98 is suspended, the Community College League of California estimates that the effect to EC would be a $19 million loss in state funds and fees climbing up to a $66 a unit in an effort to bring the net reduction of EC’s fund down to $14 million. Christina Gold, Academic Senate president, said that officials are still unclear as to what the future will look like. “Nobody knows what exactly is going to happen or how deep the cuts will be so they’re planning for each of these scenarios, we won’t know exactly until June,” Gold said. Gold said that tuition fees will be going up regardless, with the effect being a drop in attendance at EC. “We’re going to have probably a 5 to 7 percent decrease in the number of students on campus,” she said. Since the state only funds for a certain number of students, limits could hurt our budget even more.
Continued, see BUDGET, Page 2
Economic woes mean fewer opportunities for transfer students Rabiya Hussain Staff Writer
As a result of California’s shrinking budget for education, students will now need to meet higher admission requirements in order to transfer to universities. In an effort to keep up with the economy, several universities have cut down on the number of students they enroll, but as the number of applicants continue to increase, competition as well as higher grade point average requirements begin to appear. “In the past four years, transfer rates from EC to universities have decreased significantly due to the development of local admission areas by impacted CSU campuses such as CSU Long Beach,” Sue Oda-Omori, Transfer Center coordinator said. Therefore, students attending a community college within the local area of a particular CSU campus are held to a lower GPA requirement while stu-
dents who are not in the local area are required to have a higher GPA. This development has led the number of students who have transferred to CSULB to shrivel from 449 students in 2006 to a mere 180 students in 2010. “I don’t think local admissions area is a good policy,” Erika Ramirez, 22, art history major, said, “It’s unreasonable and unfair for students to be required to have higher GPA’s just because of proximity.” Aside from the GPA requirements, a number of students like Ashley Anderson, 21, accounting major, are choosing not to transfer at all because of the high tuition costs. Despite California’s economic woes, EC still can provide students with an alternative to going directly to universities. “Even though our numbers have gone down,” Oda-Omori said, “we were No.1 in transferring stu-
dents to the Cal State system for 2009-2010 out of 112 community colleges.” Transfer rates to CSU Dominguez Hills and CSU Northridge, two of a handful of CSU campuses that have not declared local admission areas, have seen a significant increase. Even though several universities have lost a lot of their outreach budget, making it harder for them to visit campuses for student conferences, OdaOmori said universities are still making an effort to come to EC. “We have a really good reputation with universities and so we’re still lucky we are getting quite a few visits,” Oda-Omori said. And according to Joseph Holliday, co-director of the honors transfer program, transfers to the more prestigious universities have not been affected as significantly for students enrolled in the honors program. “We have a tie for the best transfer rate of any
other transfers program in the state,” said Holliday. “The last three years we’ve had that high rate, despite the economy,” Holliday said, adding that out of the 120 honor students that apply to transfer every year, 80 to 90 percent are successful. However, with the exception of UCLA and UC Berkeley, most UCs are having similar problems to CSUs; tuition costs are rising and they are enrolling fewer students. According to Holliday, UCLA has a closer tie to the honors program and every year has a budget for 1100 transfers to their system, unlike other UCs. There is no clear distinction yet in regards to which university has had the lowest honors transfer rate, Holliday said. “It’s even more critical if you want to go to UCLA or UC Berkeley, to be in a program like the honors program because it’s getting harder and harder to get in almost triples your chance at getting in,” he said.
Campus aims to accommodate students with mental illnesses Eric Farrell Co-News Editor
In the wake of the Tucson shooting involving Jared Lee Loughner earlier this year as well as the rise in teenage suicides last year, campuses aim to remain vigilant towards those with mental illnesses. “Community colleges have a unique burden,” Rebecca Cobb, director of student development, said, “We are an open-access campus, a microcosm of whatever the surrounding community is. I think the burden has become diminishing resources for a population with increasing needs.” Students get six free one-hour, one-on-one sessions with a psychologist every year, said Debbie Conover, coordinator of student health services. There is a clinical psychologist who comes in four days a week on appointment at EC. “They could come in via several ways. It could be that they were referred in by one of their teachers, it may be that a teacher found something like a disturbing thing a student wrote,” Conover said. Conover explained that due to confidentiality
This is part one of a three part series about students with mental illnesses at community colleges.
reasons, nobody but the student can make an appointment, which is done in the health center during walk-in hours located by the Pool and Physical Education buildings. “We have them fill out kind of like a preliminary questionnaire, just to make sure they aren’t in any immediate danger to themselves or others,” Conover said. The health office can also make referrals to outside institutions to further help students with their
mental illnesses should the six sessions offered by EC not be enough, Conover said. “The sessions are set up in a crisis intervention manner, which means we try to find out the problem, give them some tools to be able to pick themselves up and move forward,” she said. “In the event that the student can’t accomplish what they need to have accomplished in the six sessions, then we have resources for community referrals.” EC also offers free workshops led by the college’s part-time psychologist on select dates, with the next workshop, entitled “Test Anxiety,” Tuesday, at 11 a.m. Some names of other workshops have been “Anger Management,” “Understanding Depression,” and “Positive Psychology: The Science of Feeling Good.” More information on workshops can be found on the “ECC Student Health Services” newsletter, which can be found in the health office. Faculty members are not in the position to help these students with their mental illnesses. “What we look at is their ability to function in the classroom,” Julio Farias, psychology associate
professor, said. “A person can have a mental illness and still go to work, go to school, have relationships, and we’d not be aware of it. As long as these students are functional, we don’t really care.” “The campus is as safe as it’s going to get, the probability of it happening here is like 33 out of 33 million,” he said, “You’ll win the lottery before you get shot on campus.” Farias said that ideally more care should be offered to these students, but that it’s a bad idea for faculty members to try and help them on their own. “Ideally, it would be great if we could help that one student, but if that one student is going to affect the learning of all the other students in the classroom,” Farias said, “then it’s a hard decision to make. The subject of how much EC is supposed to do for these students remains hard to figure out. “Do I think it’s the campuses job? No,” Cobb said, “Do I think we have an obligation? Yes, but I don’t think we can be educators and also try to support the lives of these students.”
UC Check-up workshop will take place on campus
Art college panel will be on campus
First ASO meeting to take place on campus
CSU Long Beach workshop
Students interested in attending a University of California can attend a The first meeting of the semester for workshop that will take place Tuesday the Inter-club council will take place from 1 to 2 p.m. The workshop will Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. on the be located in the Humanities building, Schauerman Library in Room 202. Room 112
Representatives from art colleges will be giving presentations on their art programs, admission requirements, and more in the Haag Recital Hall on Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The first ASO meeting of the spring semester will take place next Thursday. The meeting is going to take place in the West Conference room of the Activities Center from 1 to 2 p.m.
If you’re interested in attending CSULB there will be a workshop on Tuesday, March 15 from 2 to 3 p.m in the Student Services Center, Room 218A. Information on transferring will be given.
NEWS LINE Inter-club council will be hosting first meeting
-Novella VaKay