Accreditation
Rampage
Fresno City College
Volume CXXI, Edition 4
Oct. 19, 2011
These words were taken from fresno city college’s self-study report. The larger the words the more often they were used in the study.
Rampage
Fresno City College Volume CXXI, Edition 5
therampageonline.com
November 2, 2011
Con Artist Poses as FCC Instructor By Jesse Franz Rampage Reporter
Throughout last summer, several Fresno City College students attended what they believed to be English and Political Science courses. Little did they know that the courses were part of a scam, aimed at stealing money from students, by self-proclaimed “con artist”, Jacklyn Murfree. Allegedly paying Murfree in cash, students attended the courses like any other given at Fresno City College. With the exception that the classes were often held at Starbucks in the Tower District, the course felt fairly routine for a number of students. However, after the summer courses came to a close and students tried to find transcripts of their grades, the credit they thought they were earning in the class proved nonexistent. Frustrated by not being able to find their grades on Web Advisor, students sought out advice from their school counselors. This is when the students first became aware that Fresno City College
illustration by
does not employ an instructor by the name of Jacklyn Murfree. There soon came a growing suspicion that the students had been scammed, until finally on Sept. 2, a report was officially filed with the State Center Community College District Police Department. Frantic, students turned to one of their only means of contact with Murfree, Facebook. But, when they ultimately got to her
Facebook page, they were greeted with a message posted by her, reading, “Hi, I’m Jackie and I’m a con artist.” Posted on Sept. 7, it was the last comment left by her to date. “I think we were all caught off guard,” said Vice President of Student Services, Chris Villa. The SCCCD Police Department, in conjunction with the Fresno Police Department, is con-
tinuing to look into the incident. Lt. Gaines of the SCCCD Police, said, “There’s follow up that needs to be conducted. That follow up, the purpose of it is to determine whether a crime has been committed, and what exactly happened. If a crime has been committed, it will be referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.” It’s not clear at this time how
Ramiro Gudino
many students fell victim to this scam, how much money she defrauded students out of, or even if Jacklyn Murfree was an alias or not. However, on her Facebook, she claims to be a North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University graduate from Parlier, California. A press release from July 3, 2009, does in fact list a Jacklyn Murfree as graduating from NC A&T in Spring 2009, but it still remains unclear whether that was the same person being investigated in this case. A search of past instances of this type of incident found that, to the best of our knowledge, no events like this have been recorded at FCC in the past. Villa, who is a 30
See Con Artist on page 5
ASG Legislative Vice President Impeached By Jordan Russell Rampage Reporter Fresno City College’s Associated Student Government voted 12-3 at its meeting yesterday to impeach Karlton Brown, the legislative vice president, for allegedly failing to perform his duties as outlined in the ASG constitution. “It’s a misunderstanding,” Brown said. “It’s a broken line of communication between me and my team.” ASG President Cindy Quiralte said that Brown’s performance has been unsatisfactory since he first took office in August. “According to the constitution,” she said, “there were specific guidelines that outlined things that had to be done since the start of the semester.”
FCC Fall Carnival
9
Quiralte said the Senate originally felt that it was necessary to create a committee to review the role of LVP and whether or not it was being fulfilled. At that point, the creation of a contract was discussed. “The contract would have done exactly what the findings of the committee did, which was to highlight those things that were required in the role of LVP,” She said. “That would have allowed him to understand how he has not been fulfilling the role, as well as possibly extend an opportunity to show improvement.” The committee, however, concluded that a contract was unnecessary and did not follow the procedures of the constitution. Therefore, members of the Senate
voted to continue with the removal process. At a meeting on Oct. 25, ASG formally charged Brown with failing to create and monitor campus committees, attend ASG sponsored events, attend Executive Board and Student Senate meetings, or carry out requests of the president and senate. He was also charged with being tardy at 64 percent of Senate meetings. According to the ASG constitution, the legislative vice president is responsible for the formation and oversight of campus committees, a role claims he fulfilled. “I spoke to a few contact people on the committees, and they said everything was going good,” He said. “I do reports and I ask the students…even when I see them in passing, ‘How are your com-
Should Schools Get Tougher?
11
mittees going? Let me know if job,” Gardner said. Brown explained that several you have a problem.’” Brown also stated that such endeavors should senators also failed to follow be more collaborative. “If I need certain office procedures and assistance, I will fall on my exec questioned why their actions board and my senators to assist were not subject to scrutiny. “Just me. That’s what we’re supposed think about it like this: why when to be – a team, a collective effort.” you look on that board do we see Senator Grisanti Valencia told some people following office a different version of events. “A procedures, and we see some lot of the heads of the commit- people are not?” He added. “If tees were contacting the president we see things…that aren’t workbecause when they contacted LVP ing, then there’s a problem in the Brown, he would never respond,” group, because everyone should be supportive of others. Take the she said. Senator Linda Gardner added personal aspects out of it and look that Brown’s “committees haven’t at it as handling business: I would been formed yet.” Additionally, go out of my way for anybody in Brown did not inform ASG of here, whether they’re doing their what he’s been doing. “So, we job or not, because my job is to set have to go through procedure if he’s not doing his See ASG Impeachment on page 4
FCC Science Presentation Sparks
16
Rampage
Fresno City College Volume CXXII, Edition 1
Find Us
February 1, 2012
IS SUMMER
SCHOOL DOOMED?
ByAlex Tavlian Rampage Reporter
Students in the State Center Community College District may be facing a drastic change to their annual schedule if the Board of Trustees has its way and eliminates an overwhelming majority of this year’s summer school course offerings during its Feb. 7 meeting. Canceling the summer classes at all of its campuses will save the district $500,000 Chancellor Deborah G. Blue wrote in an email to staff on Jan. 27. “We are showing savings from canceling summer session courses through the end of the fiscal year,” the chancellor had explained in another email. Blue explained that the district is recommending the cancellation of summer school in order to avoid salary cuts and layoffs of staff.
In another email to staff on Jan. 20, the chancellor had noted that her office was additionally recommending to the board of trustees “to cancel the remaining summer sessions for 2012.” Since then, the chancellor has recon-
hardships this would create for students, I directed Ed Eng [vice chancellor for finance] to rework the mid-year reduction plan to include options for including at least some scaled-back summer sessions after June 30.” She stated
The chancellor’s proposal to entirely eliminate all summer offerings before June 30 and reduce the number of courses offered after July 1 does not sit well with Student trustee Christopher Coronado or Lacey Barnes, president
“The district messed things up and is now putting it on the backs of the students.” Chris Coronado Student Trustee sidered. In an email to staff last Friday, Blue wrote, “After hearing from the campuses about the severe
THERAMPAGEONLINE.COM
that while the mid-year reduction plan proposal will include some form of summer session, “it will be greatly reduced.”
Rampage Editorial
Quilts Artwork
8 13
of the State Center Federation of Teachers. Coronado said that the proposal to eliminate summer school
Basketball Update
15
was like “turning on a dime” rather than planning ahead for future cutbacks. “How successful will students be?” Coronado asked. He added that the move to eliminate a part of summer school shortchanged students, giving students roughly four weeks to complete classes designed for six weeks of instruction. “The district messed things up and is now putting it on the backs of students,” Coronado said. Shortening the session wasn’t the “optimal learning environment for students or teachers,” Barnes said. “The best we can hope for is a cursory introduction to the information that you need to be learning,” she said. “Are we really talking about what’s best for the students?”
See Summer School on page 3