EL CAMINO COLLEGE NOV. 15, 2018 Follow us at @ECCUnion
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Dia de los Muertos, ‘A Celebration of Life’ The jaguar played by Mailena Serrano,27, waiting for the spirit of death in the cultural dance performance at El Camino College’s Dia de los Muertos, “A Celebration of Life” event as a part of the Anthropology Club’s, Thursday, Nov. 1 .
Mari Inagaki/ Union
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Paintball shooters sentenced to prison time
Former students involved in drive-by shooting plead no contest Esteban Mendez Staff Writer
@ECCUnionEsteban
Two former El Camino College students who shot two people in Torrance earlier this year with a paintball gun were sentenced to serve prison time on Thursday, Nov. 1. The man who fired the paintball gun, former EC student Tyler Walters was sentenced to six years in a state prison on charges of mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon to which Walters pleaded
no contest, authorities say. Accomplice and former EC student Lynn Johnson was sentenced to four years in a state prison for one count of felony mayhem after pleading no contest, authorities say. Another accomplice, Gabriella Semana, also pleaded no contest was sentenced to six months in country jail and then three years of probation. The attacks occurred on Sunday, Feb. 4 around 9:30 p.m. at two separate locations in Torrance. Prosecutors say that Johnson was the driver and Semana was in the passenger seat. Walters fired the
paintball gun during both attacks. One of these attacks resulted in one of the victims, Michael Fejes, being temporarily blinded in one eye. Walters shot Fejes in the eye and Fejes said in an interview with NBC that the assailants were “Laughing, hooting, and hollering” at him while he clutched his bleeding eye in pain. Later that same day a 14-yearold boy was also attacked with a paintball gun and was hit in the mouth with yellow paint. All three suspects were caught and arrested for the attacks two days after and police retrieved a
paintball gun from their vehicle. Walter’s defense attorney Rayford Fountain said “I was, you know, hoping for a lesser sentence because he (Tyler Walters) had no priors. That said, the injuries to the victim were very serious. The sentences weren’t grossly unfair considering the circumstances.” Lead prosecutor on the case Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said that the sentences were “Fair” and “Severe enough for the heinous crime”. Bott said that his team of prosecutors, the defense attorneys for the defendants, as well as
Michael Fejes were involved in deciding what was a fair sentence. Bott said that they took into account that the suspects had no priors. Walters and Johnson will have to serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentences before they become eligible for parole as a result of the mayhem charges, Bott added. “At the time I’m sure they thought what they were doing was funny, but now they’ve realized their actions had no place in a civilized society” Bott said.
Academic Senate reviews potential policy changes
Overlapping enrollments and changing astronomy faculty qualifications discussed
Esteban Mendez Staff Writer
@ECCUnionEsteban
The Academic Senate met on Tuesday, Nov. 6 to review proposed changes to the current policy of how EC handles overlapping student enrollments as well as changing the qualifications to be hired in the Astronomy department. The changes proposed are for Board Policy 4226 (BP 4226) and Administrative Procedure 4226 (AP 4226) , both of which are simply rules that cover the circumstances in which a student may be allowed to enroll in classes that have overlapping time schedules or multiple different
classes that are same course. Vice President of Educational Policies Darcie McClelland said that the need for a change in BP and AP 4226 became noticeable during the spring semester, noting that both the EC faculty and the Board of Trustees were confused over the language in the section. The rules were sent back to McClelland and the Educational Policies committee to be changed over the summer semester. McClelland said “So what I want to stress here is that the content of this policy and procedure have not changed from what we approved in the spring. The only thing that has changed is that I’ve parceled out with different headings so that hopefully this time it is very clear
what part of it deals with multiple enrollments and what part of it deals with overlapping enrollments and what the definitions of those are.” Many Academic Senate members were concerned about AP 4226 specifically, citing the part of the procedure which states that a student can enroll in classes that have an overlapping schedule if they can find a way to make up time missed in either class. They were concerned that it implies that the instructor would be required to comply to a student’s method of making up missed time. President of the Academic Senate Kristie Daniel-DiGregorio said that “Our (EC) escape clause is ‘An appropriate district official
approves the schedule’”, citing the text of AP 4226 which lists the requirements the student must meet. DiGregorio said the Academic Senate would vote on these changes in their next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 20. The Academic Senate also discussed lowering the minimum qualifications needed to apply for a position in the astronomy faculty. Currently the astronomy department follows the state qualifications for astronomy. The department wants to instead change their minimum requirements to the Chancellor’s minimum qualifications for astronomy and physics to “widen the net,” said DiGregorio.
Professor of astronomy Shimonee Kadakia told the Academic Senate, “What happened was we wanted to hire some parttimers over the summer and we sent out the job opening and we actually received about 5 people who applied. But none of them met the minimum qualifications.” DiGregorio said the changes to qualifications would apply to both part-time and full-time faculty that apply in the future, not current faculty members. Kadakia stressed the need for these changes, “Some of them taught astronomy for years at other community colleges, but we still couldn’t even get them in the door here. As a result, we had to cancel our summer courses.”
Students stuck in elevator during recent power outage
Trapped students unable to get help using call button in Humanities Building elevator Fernando Haro Staff Writer
@ECCUnionFernand
Three El Camino College students are safe after being stuck in a Humanities Building elevator due to a power outage on Wednesday. The students came out of the elevator anxious and nervous at
what had occurred. The students attempted to call for help and pressed the call button on the elevator, an effort that proved to be futile as none of the buttons worked due to the power outage. “I didn’t like that there was no help. How can you have a help button and nobody to help,” 21-year-old English major, Tiara Wilson said.
Wilson said the elevator moved up and down, “jumping” from floor to floor continuously. “(It) kept going up and down like three times,” Wilson said. Lauren Flores, 21, English major, said this incident increased her anxiety, showing her discomfort through her shaking hands. Flores said she originally wanted to take the stairs but decided not to do so because her backpack was
heavy. “The elevator was jumping floor to floor. It’s never happened before.” Flores said. “(The elevator) doesn’t even light up and the alarm didn’t work.” Operator 42 at the EC police department said they could send an officer over to check on the well being of the students but could not do much more and referred The Union to the maintenance
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA
department. Students continued using the elevator a few minutes after, unaware of what had just transpired. EC Electrician, Robert McNeill, said that he has checked the elevators around campus and they are functioning properly. “We had an Edison campus-wide glitch in the power and everything is back to normal,” McNeill said.
Union newspaper staff wins multiple awards in regional and national competitions
Fernando Haro Staff Writer
@ECCUnionFernand The El Camino College newspaper, The Union, and its staff, won multiple awards for their work in the previous fall and spring semesters including second place for Newspaper of the Year. The Union and Warrior Life staff members from the previous spring and 2017 fall semesters won 19 individual awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) competition for Southern California. Current and former staff members who won awards in the competition were Oshari Arnett, Melanie Chacon, Zach Hatakeyama, Jack Kan, Faith Patrie, Jose Tobar, Justin Traylor, Jorge Villa, and Jamie Woods. Traylor is currently the editor-inchief of Warrior Life Magazine. Together, The Union and Warrior Life staff garnered one first-place award, five second-place awards, three third-place awards, six fourthplace awards, three honorable mentions, and an award for general excellence from the JACC. From the College Media Association (CMA), The Union was awarded second place for Newspaper of the Year as well as two honorable mentions for Best Editorial Cartoon and Best Opinion Page/Spread. The CMA competition is nationwide and includes both two year and four year educational institutions. The honorable mention awarded to The Union for Best Editorial Cartoon was for work done by Jose Tobar on his cartoon about affordable housing. amd the honorable mention for Best Opinion Page/Spread was for work done by Petrie. About The Union’s success, their advisor, Stefanie Frith, said the Journalism department has a long history of training students to become good journalists. “To be named as one of the best two-year college newspapers in the country is a huge honor,” Frith said.
Also in issue...
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See Editorial on page 2 and see Opinion columns on page 3 Information on the California wildfires. See News on Page 4.
Contributing to the arts and serving their nation See Photo Essay on Page 5 International Education Week and Crossword Puzzle
See Features on Page 6 Q&A with EC football linebacker See Sports on Page 7