Union
El Camino College
April 28, 2011
Pow Wow festivities on campus
Academic Senate takes aim at poor transfer rates to CSULB Jessica Mendoza Staff Writer
Patrick Osborne /Union Matt Porter, 24, of the Cherokee Tribe performing his dance during the opening ceremony of the annual All-Nations Pow Wow held April 9-10 on campus.
Torrance, Calif
With EC not having priority admissions to a local California State University (CSU) and students wanting to transfer getting rejected, the Academic Senate is preparing to take action. Chris Wells, vice president of legislative action of the Academic Senate, is putting up a fight to defend students on their attempts to transfer into the CSU’s programs. Currently, Golden West College, Long Beach City College, and Orange Coast College all have priority admissions to CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach. EC has no priority admission agreement with any CSU, said Wells. CSU Dominguez Hill’s local admission area is the entire state, therefore they are no more relevant than any other CSU. “I believe that we need to take the most aggressive stance possible,” Wells said. “Yes, it’s excellent for the students who have the priority admissions, but what about our students?” The policy of “free flow” was adopted by the state legislature in 1987, which permits students to enroll in any community college in the state, regardless of the district they reside in. Wells said he believes that if students are now choosing which community college they need to attend to guarantee admissions then it is no longer “free flow” and they are choosing community colleges based on what CSU it will get them and not the students needs. CSULB has given priority admissions to community colleges that are geographically further from them
than EC. “The system is totally inappropriate and unfair,” Wells said. According to a graph put together by EC’s Institutional Research, in the fall of 2007, 64.3 percent of students were admitted to CSULB. In fall 2010, just 26.1 percent of students were admitted. Wells said that students from community colleges with priority admissions, such as LBCC, only need a 2.0 GPA to get in to their local CSU, while EC students need about a 3.2 GPA. This is also affecting EC because it hurts the ability to attract students, Wells said. “If you work hard, then you should be able to get into the school that you want,” Laura Torres, 20, communications major, said. “It’s not fair for us to be left behind, especially when we can commute to these schools.” Some students are getting into the University of California system just fine, but it’s the CSU system that is
the biggest problem. “I got accepted into UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara right away, but I haven’t heard back from CSU Long Beach yet,” Mariela Villalobos, 21, international relations major, said. “I really didn’t want to move away from home, because it saves me a lot of money to stay local, but with how everything is playing out, it seems like I am going to have to move,” Villalobos said. For fall 2010, 1,039 students from Long Beach City College applied to CSULB, with 406 students being admitted, whereas EC had 1,095 applicants with only 286 being admitted. “This is a systematic problem and the state is being negatively affected by this,” Wells said. “My goal is to connect with the local colleges in similar situations because this is becoming a civil right issue. I want to file a complaint to the Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Education.”
Statistics taken from an April 18 Daily Breeze article.
Eric Farrell /Union
Proposed policy may give priority registration to newer students Viridiana Vaca-Rios Co-Opinion Editor
At last Monday’s board of trustees meeting, board members discussed a new proposed priority registration policy that will affect students who have earned 90 units or more. The new priority registration system, which is said to possibly begin in fall 2012, will no longer grant priority to students who have reached 90 units or more. Instead, students who have reached the 90 unit mark will have two registration points deducted for each unit
earned beyond 90 units until the registration points equal 15 points. Bill Mulrooney, director of admissions and records, wrote the enrollment priority portion of the board of trustees agenda and explained how the new priority registration system will motivate students who have been enrolled here for a long time to earn their associate degree or certification. “The more units you have, you start losing points in priority registration and the reason we will do that is because students have been here for many, many years,” Mulrooney said. The new system will also help new
students to register in classes that fill up quickly by students on campus with priority. Although the new system was discussed in the recent meeting, there are still more details that need to be finalized before implementing it because the new system may possibly have exceptions for some students. “Somebody is going to have to come up with how each cohort comes up with registration stuff,” Don Treat, technical services supervisor, said. As to how students will be informed when this takes affect, Mulrooney said it will highly be publicized through
class schedules and the Web. John Wagstaff, director of informational technology services, said it is budget cuts that force the state to look at what the college is doing with registration. “The irony about this is we don’t tell you your point total and your point total is what decides your registration time,” Wagstaff said. However, with the system being reviewed and details under discussion, Mulrooney said that another idea that was given was to put students at the 90 unit mark back at zero, setting their time of registration farther on the list.
“One section in the agenda might change because the legal affairs office is making us reconsider that students with 90 units may go back to zero units once they reach 90,” Mulrooney said. Even though many students will be affected by this new system, Wagstaff assures that students are a priority here at EC. “Were committed to serving students here and making as little cuts as possible,” Wagstaff said. “At the end of the day no one wants to hurt new or continuing students, we want students to fulfill their goals.”
Forensics team takes home 17 awards, second place in nation Jessica Mendoza Staff Writer
While others may have been lounging by the pool over spring break, the forensics team traveled to Connecticut to compete in the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament, where it took home the first place title in debate and the second place title in the nation overall. The tournament had 398 students from 58 community colleges throughout the country. EC dominated as the team took home 17 awards total. Three gold and two bronze were won in parliamentary debate, two gold and three silver in Lincoln Douglas (LD) debate, gold in oral interpretation, two golds in extempora-
NEWS LINE Voting for ASO elections all next week Vote for your EC Associated Students Organization members next week, Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Schauerman Library lawn and 4 to 6 p.m. in the Activities Center.
neous speaking, silver in impromptu, and bronze in speech to entertain. “I think that the surprising thing was the margin by what we beat the other schools by,” Francesca Bishop, forensics coach, said. “It was pretty impressive, we left them in a bloody pulp on the floor.” The EC debate team has already taken home first place in state, and was ranked the No. 1 community college in the nation, according to the National Parliamentary Debate Association. “This was a lot different than state; it was a long, nine-day tournament with five days of non-stop competing,” Shannon Merideth, 19, communications major, said. “We are exhausted, but it was well worth it.”
Children’s Day happening on campus Saturday “Children’s Day” is this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The free event, presented by the Childhood Education Department, will include child friendly activities. Interested persons may contact mmoen@elcamino.edu for more information.
Merideth placed gold in parliamentary debate with partner Mark Faaita, gold
“I think that the surprising thing was the margin by what we beat the other schools by. It was pretty impressive, we left them in a bloody pulp on the floor.” —Francesca Bishop forensics coach in LD, and took home the Fish Nelson award, which is an award that the entire tournament votes on to determine
Space Science Day 2011 is this Saturday Space Science Day 2011 is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday at the Planetarium on campus. Astronaut Soichi Noguchi is scheduled to be at the free event. Interested persons may call (310) 600-3487 or email spaceday@elcamino.edu.
who they think best represents the finest qualities in their respective events. “We all get along so well, which reflects on our success. We all support each other,” Merideth said. Ben Porter, 18, political science and philosophy major, placed bronze in debate. “State gave us a good preparation because a lot of the California schools are really big powerhouses,” Porter said. “State was actually a lot hard than nationals because of that.” Whitney Gamble, 22, mass communications major, placed gold in oral interpretation where she did a piece about lyrics in the music industry and how our youth needs better role models. “I act as a career outside of El Cami-
no, so this is a perfect way for me to get my acting classes and practice my character development without having to play a ton of money for acting coaches,” Gamble said. At nationals last year, Gamble earned silver in oral interpretation, so meeting her goal in placing gold this year was accomplished. “It still hasn’t really sunk in that I placed in gold,” Gamble said. “Being the only woman to take gold in my event, it’s really awesome.” “We have people on this team that are really passionate about what they are doing,” Gamble said. “We are doing this because it’s fun to us and when you enjoy what you are doing, you just naturally want to be the best at it.”
Silent auction for Child Development Center
Nursing information session this Monday
Child Development Center’s 1st annual art night is today from 4:306:30 p.m. A silent auction fund raiser will be held to auction off “one of a kind works of art from the creative minds of children” from the Child Development Center.
Need information about nursing? There will be a nursing information session this Monday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Alondra Room on campus. Interested persons may call the nursing department at (310) 660-3281 for more information. -Tayani Davis