NIO U N
Serving the campus community since 1946
“The Expressive Line of Wayne Alaniz Healy”
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EL CAMINO COLLEGE
March 29, 2012
Children fish for prizes at Activity Hour
Torrance, California
CSU’s enrollment freeze may delay transferring Roy Moore Staff Writer Shortly after announcing a 10 percent pay hike to incoming California State University presidents, Cal State officials announced that they will not be admitting new students for the spring 2013 semester. Only eight of the 23 CSU’s campuses will be accepting a few hundred students, denying the remaining applicants access to the state’s largest public university system. The freeze on enrollment is an effort to recover from a $750 million cut in funding made during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. “It will dramatically affect our students at EC because a lot of students in their educational plan already have it planned out to transfer in the spring 2013 semester,” Sue Oda-Omori, Transfer Center coordinator said. “They’ve done all the
preparation and they were counting on it and now they are going to be shut out.” The fall 2013 semester could suffer the same fate pending the outcome of the proposed new tax measures on the upcoming November ballot. While CSU students face cutbacks, the Fullerton and East Bay campus presidents were granted 10 percent pay increases. The CSU board of trustees said the increases are necessary to attract and obtain top executives of talent. “It was a certain amount or percentage over what their last salary was. I think there was legislation that went into it and those two new presidents did get a pretty substantial raise,” OdaOmori said. In the meantime students may have to extend their time at EC pending voter turnout of the tax measure. See ‘ENROLLMENT’ on page 2
Two-tier plan would offer more classes but at a much higher cost Eva Ziss-Patton Staff Writer
Brittny Peterson/ Union Eden Oliva, 4, student at the EC Child Development Center, concentrates as she tries to fish for prizes with her pink wrapped stick during “Children’s Story and Activity Hour” at the Schauerman Library Lawn last friday.
With a two-tier plan at Santa Monica City College possibly being implemented, students on campus are worried that EC will follow if it is approved. The two-tier proposal would offer certain high-demand classes for a higher price when the regular classes have filled up. The estimated cost will be $200 per unit for the two-tier plan. Community college students currently pay $36 per unit and students will see a rise in unit fees from $36 to $46 this summer. Joshua Casper, EC student trustee, said that at the time, no such plans seem to be in the works. “President (Tom) Fallo is very fiscally savvy, so that might be an option he might like, but he’s also going to make sure it’s a legal option before he does anything like that, so I think until that
issue is resolved, I don’t see it happening here” Casper said. Many students at EC are outraged by the possibility of such classes, which is said to be a step toward privatization of our public education system and is viewed by many as inequitable, favoring certain students based on their economic status. “To offer courses at a different price totally at the cost to the students, basically erodes the basic foundation of public education. Public education is supposed to be the great equalizer, something that’s accessible to one regardless of economic status,” Robert Dewitz, a psychology and American Sign Language major, said EC students worry that if SMC does successfully implement this plan, See ‘TWO-TIER’ on page 2
Costly election can possibly cause future budget cuts Ashley Curtin Arts Editor As the state’s financial crisis weighs on the college budget, an additional disbursement will have an added impact on the already tough financial times. After a board of trustees’ election took place last November between William Beverly, current board member, and Wendy Doeh, a campaign bill of $1.1 million poses a negative effect on the college’s upcoming budget plans. The college, which budgeted $400,000 for the election based on a Los Angeles County estimate, was recently compounded with $700,000 in unanticipated expenses from election officials, Jo Ann Higdon, vice president of administrative services, said. As the college struggles to fund classes and keep winter session on the academic calendar, this election bill will cause even more budget cuts and uncertainty in the coming year, Joshua Casper, ASO senate executive officer and student trustee, said.
“With more cuts most likely to come, we might have to dip into the reserve from what I am hearing and we would have $700,000 dollars less due to this election,” Casper said. “And so that will effect us in the sense that we won’t have enough money to fund sections and it can affect students in an endless number of ways.” From previous elections, it was concluded that no other college documented a bill as large as the one delivered to EC and therefore, EC requested and received a breakdown of the costs from election officials, Higdon said. “The college has little choice but to pay this election bill,” she added. “It is too late to (make) additional budget cuts for the current year for this unanticipated expense.” Students have different thoughts surrounding the situation, but many of them are not happy with the high cost imposed by the campaign. “In times like these, it seems like there is always an excuse to cut off education funding,” Jennifer Montoya, 24, sociology major, said. “It is ridiculous.”
While the administration has yet to decide on the measure it will take to pay the election bill or what cut backs, if any, will be made in order to do so, this cost comes at a time of statewide education uncertainty. “This unplanned additional expenditure of more than seven thousand dollars will negatively impact our ending year balance and our upcoming year’s budget,” Higdon said. President Tom Fallo, said that a lot of people criticized this election in particular. “One thing I will say though is that is the price of democracy in one sense or the cost of democracy. A lot of people criticized the election, that particular election, that it was politically motivated. Those are tough words in a sense; I don’t judge it now, I just have to deal with it,” Fallo said. “We have reserves and we will use some of that money that we have in out reserves this year, but we also need some of that money for next year.”
Blood drive overwhelmed with amount of student donors Thomas Schmit Staff Writer
NEWS LINE
Despite falling just short of its goal of 288 units of blood, Student Services Specialist Breanna von Stein said that the March Red Cross blood drive was a major success. While the drive only collected 237 units of blood, von Stein attributed the slightly lower than expected result to simply lacking the time and space to handle the rush of willing donors. “We just didn’t have enough spots open,” von Stein said, adding, “We were pretty busy all the way through”. Von Stein said the problem was that the number of staff members available is deter-
Eva Ziss-Patton
mined by how many donors sign up for the event in advance. However, the overwhelming majority of donors who participated were walk-ins without an appointment. Inter-Club Council Secretary Ricky Gonzalez, who was the student responsible for coordinating the blood drive, said that it was difficult to determine exactly how many donors participated because of the rush. “We don’t have exact numbers yet, but we had to have had easily more than 130 students and faculty participate,” Gonzalez said, adding that it was a “complete success.” However, previous EC blood drives have been more successful.
EC’s October 2011 blood drive, for example, collected 259 units of blood, while last March’s blood drive collected 425 units of blood. Still, von Stein applauded the contribution by students and pointed out that as many as 711 lives could be saved with the amount of blood donated. “I think what was most significant about the drive was how unusually smoothly it went, even with the amount of people who showed up,” von Stein said. Von Stein also added that the blood drive was a team effort. “I think we have the student volunteers to thank for that, they really made a difference,” von Stein added.
Hat show to take place today
Student senate will be meeting today
Get financial aid questions answered
DUI Awareness Fair on Monday
Transfer Center will host college tour
Celebrate Women’s History Month with El Camino’s final event today at 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the Student Activity Center, East Lounge. Show your support and even participate in a fashion show with your most fashion-forward hats.
Students are welcomed to attend the Student Senate Meeting in the Administration Building, Room 131 at 1 p.m. today. The agenda is posted in the Activities Center at the ASO Executive Office.
A financial aid workshop with take place at the Student Services Center, Room 204-G on Tuesday, April 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. There students can ask any questions regarding their financial aid applications and grants.
The 12th annual DUI awarenesss fair will feature interactive demonstrations which show the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. It is from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 2 at the Schauerman Library Lawn.
There will be a college tour on Saturday, April 7 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Woodbury University. Interested persons should visit the Transfer Center.