THURSDAY
MARCH 16, 2017 Vol. LI No. 15
Khac-Quan Nguyen See article on Page 3
FREMONT, CA OHLONEMONITOR.COM
Fremont is now a sanctuary city MIRA CHANDRA EDITOR
Workmen guiding in another steel frame of the new Academic Core Buildings.
Academic Core taking shape
RONNIE LOZANO CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The foundation for Ohlone’s Academic Core Project has been laid down after a rainy couple of months. There was a “dent in the schedule” during January and February, said Robert Dias, Director of Measure G, but operations are back on course. Despite unideal weather, the past two weeks have been great
for construction. Workers have made “significant progress” over the span, said Dias. Voters passed the $349 million bond in 2010 and the project began with demolition of Buildings 1, 2 and 8, which were built in the 1970s. Groundbreaking began last April and since then construction workers have been setting up the footprints for the Academic Core Buildings at
the heart of the campus. Structures for all three main buildings of the project are being built simultaneously. Depending on logistics and positioning of the crane, each building is coming together with different sequencing. For example, Building 2 is further along as its skeleton has two floors already in place. The floors are created by “an erection of steel with safety in
mind first,” said Dias. After that, floors are decked and concrete is put over the bases of steel. The process will eventually happen with each structure. Following this phase, Dias said work will “appear to stop” but they'll be working on other parts, such as the interior of each building. The complex is set to open in the Spring of 2019.
In the last city council meeting on March 7, Fremont mayor Lily Mei stated, "By declaring Fremont as a Compassionate Sanctuary City, we are simply upholding Fremont’s core values to celebrate diversity, to protect human rights, and to treat all of our people fairly,” According to city officials, the approved ordinance aims to protect all Fremont residents regardless of origin, gender, disability or sexual orientation. They're aware of the potential dangers which may impact Fremont from this decision due to the supposed loss of future federal funding given the recent political climate. As already enforced, Fremont officers will continue to share information with federal enforcement organizations. The status quo will remain intact in terms of regulation and information releasing, if requested of the Fremont Police. For more information, visit www.fremont.gov/ CivicAlerts.
Graduation forms are due on Friday ROB ADEMIC STAFF WRITER
This Friday, March 17, is the deadline for graduation applications. A paper application must be turned in at the Office of Admissions and Records on the Fremont Campus. The most common mistake on the application is that students list the wrong general education plan. “Sometimes they’ll put plan A when they’re really trying to be plan B,” said Santino Martinez, an enrollment services specialist at Ohlone College. “That’s something we can’t figure out until we run audits and look at it.” It will be Martinez’s job to evaluate the nearly 700 applications that will be submitted this semester. The process can be a bit time-consuming. First he’ll have to use the
information on the application to create a graduate record in the school’s computer system. If the student is applying any transfer work from other schools to their Ohlone graduation, Martinez will have to check to see if these are accredited schools that Ohlone can accept. He may then need to call these other schools to determine the Ohlone equivalent of these classes. If the school is no longer in business, like Heald College, it can be even harder to determine what if any credits are transferable. Once this information has been sorted out and logged in the computer, Martinez can run a preliminary evaluation that will determine if the student will be eligible for graduation. Only around 15 percent of applications are rejected, as most students usually have a pretty good idea of what their gradu-
ation status is before submitting an application. The preliminary evaluation allows Martinez to contact the student and discuss any issues before the semester is over. “If they’re short something, we want to be able to reach out to them and let them know.” The student can then register to make up the class during the summer semester but will still be allowed to participate in the May graduation ceremony. The graduation ceremony is the main reason that applications are due two months early. Admissions and Records has to send vendors lists of all the students who are eligible to participate in the graduation ceremony. These vendors include photographers, the bookstore which orders the caps and gowns, and the printer who prints the degrees. The most popular degree stu-
dents apply for is an Associate in Arts in Human Development Studies. “It’s a general type of degree so you can transfer to a four-year and go into a lot of different things with that,” said Martinez. While it’s the most popular degree, not everyone who earns the degree does so intentionally. “Just by taking care of your transfer requirements, most
of the time you’re on pace for a human development studies degree and you don’t even know it”. A counselor can run their own audit of your transcript and help to find surprise degrees like this however with the Friday deadline looming, there probably won’t be time to schedule a counseling appointment.