MISSY ELLIOT UPSTAGED KATY PERRY PG. 11
THE BACHELOR
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ROLLS OVER CAIRN UNIVERSITY
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YOU SPEAK WE LISTEN PACEMAKER WINNER
THELOQUITUR.COM
VOL. LVI, ISSUE 16
THURSDAY, FEB. 5, 2015
Obama’s proposal: Transitioning from free community college to 4-year institution
MCTCAMPUS
BY ERICA ABBOTT News Editor At the beginning of January, President Barack Obama proposed a government program for tuition-free community college, granting students the access to two free years at community college. This program would benefit roughly 9 million students every year, according to the White House blog. “Forty percent of our college students choose community college,” Obama said in his State of the Union address Jan. 20. “You’ve got to earn it – you’ve got to keep your grades up and graduate on time.” Students would have to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5 a stay on track to graduate, according to the White House’s briefing room. But what effect would a program like this have
on students who would eventually be transferring over to a four-year college? No doubt this has gotten four-year colleges and universities thinking about next steps should this proposal be passed. Cabrini already has partnerships with community colleges, which allow students to transfer credits with Community College of Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College, Valley Forge Military College and Montgomery County Community College. This means that Cabrini will accept general-education core courses from associate-degree courses and students will have to complete the ECG 300 and religious studies requirements. GRAPHIC DESIGNED BY ERICA ABBOTT
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Biology major doing something extraordinary with research grants BY JILL NAWOYSKI Asst. News Editor
JILL NAWOYSKI / ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Shannon Cook in lab, studying the immune systems of invertebrates.
Shannon Cook is an undergraduate biology major with an impressive resume. Cook, a senior from Royersford, Pa., has been doing research under the guidance of Dr. Sheryl Fuller-Espie, Biology Professor, since the summer of 2013. In that time, Cook has received three grants: two from the Pennsylvania Academy of Science and one from the Beta Beta Beta (TriBeta) Biological Honor Society, for her
study of innate immune responses in invertebrates in the 2014-15 academic years. The most recent grant that Cook received was valued at $474 and goes towards all of the equipment necessary for her research. Cook is studying the immune systems of invertebrates, using earthworms as her model. She is trying to find out how, at the cellular level, invertebrates defend themselves against bacteria, when confronted with bacteria. This is found by agitating the earth worms, so that they release
their white blood cells into a culture medium. Once the worms release their white blood cells outside of their bodies, Cook harvests the cells and subjects them to the bacteria of interest. Cook submitted a manuscript for publication to the Invertebrate Survival Journal in December, with the help of Morgan Sperratore and Fuller-Espie, that is still under review.
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