PALOMAR COLLEGE, SAN MARCOS, CALIF. MONDAY MARCH 2, 2009
FOCUSED ON PALOMAR
VOL. 62, NO. 15
the-telescope.com
Students speak out against tuition raises MAGGIE AVANTS AND MELISSA JARRED THE TELESCOPE
Community college students across the state are launching in a letter-writing campaign urging California legislators to support funding for their schools. “Part of democracy is exercising your First Amendment right,” said Robert Frederick, Associated Student Government president. “This is a great opportunity for students to do this. It’s very simple. All they have to do is sign it and we do the rest for them.” ASG senators are taking turns setting up a table equipped with the letters and list of each district’s legislators. Once the letters are signed, ASG senators are responsible for mailing or faxing the letters to each of the students’ respective assemblymen or women. At press time, roughly 40 letters had already been sent to legislators. According to Frederick, the ASG started the letter-writing campaign to give students a voice.
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“We didn’t want to voice the opinion of the whole student body,” he said. “It’s their choice; we’re just giving them access to it.” Students who signed the letters voiced their opinions about recent suggestions from the California Legislative Analysts Office to raise college tuition to $30 a unit. “It’s pretty i n t e re s t i n g that it jumped up to $30,” said radio and television student Matt O’Brien. “They have had hikes before by $2 or $5 but bigger — Robert Frederick hikes like this ASG President clearly show that they need money.” Emilie Vurick said she came to Palomar because it was more affordable for her. She signed the letter to let state leaders kow she is against the tuition hikes. “If I had money, I would go to a bigger university, a better one,” Vurick said. “People don’t have a lot of money right now and they are taking advantage of us.” And although previous budget pro-
Part of democracy is exercising your First Amendment right. This is a great opportunity for students to do this.
| THE TELESCOPE Student Carlos Pablo signs the letter to the opposing college budget cuts.
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posals included a 50 percent tuition hike and the elimination of the Cal Grant B, these are no longer being considered.Community colleges across the state are still experiencing a 1 percent cut in cost-of-living, which amounts to $1.2 million for Palomar College alone, according to Frederick. “Even though we now know tuition won’t be raised,” Frederick said. “It is still important for legislators to know where students stand.” He said that due to the cuts, colleges are cutting back on instruction as they can’t afford to instruct students, but enrollment is still going up. Students such as O’Brien said they know the school is operating with limited funds. “Most of the departments are on the lowest possible budget,” O’Brien said. “Knowing this, I don’t think a tuition hike would have ‘broke’ me, but it would have made things tighter.” Frederick said the letter writing campaign will force legislators to look at the importance of community colleges, especially in this recession. “We’re showing them that our future preference is for no additional cuts to community colleges,” he said. For more information on the letter writing campaign, contact the ASG office at (760) 744-1150, ext. 2689 or visit their Web site at palomar.edu/asg.
Drought could lead to water rationing SARA BURBIDGE
SHAUN KAHMANN THE TELESCOPE
to cut water supply due to the drought. With the less than 1 percent of “In anticipation of reductions Earth’s usable water being quick- called for by wholesalers, the City ly extinguished, residents of San is preparing for mandatory water Diego County may soon have less conservation and water allocaaccess to water, according to city tions, depending on the severity officials. of the cutback.” Genersoso said. With a record drought in 2007 California’s main water distriand a dry 2008-2009 winter sea- bution systems, The State Water son in spite of the recent rain, Project and the Central Valley California’s water supply is Project were both developed in depleting faster than its natural the early to mid 20th century and rate of replacement. were not designed to account for Agriculture and wildlife suffer modern usage. as California’s distribution infraAccording to a report released structure barely manages to sup- by the Westlands Water District, a ply the state with enough water private organization that supplies to keep residents’ toilets flushing. water to farmlands and homeWith California’s staple sources owners statewide, 2007 saw a 25 nearing depletion, Californians percent decrease in full-time onare beginning to dip into emer- farm jobs. gency water In 2008, sources in there was a order to keep decrease of 65 water flowing percent, leavto its 38 miling a comlion residents; bined total of sources that 460,000 acres are meant to unfarmed and support resi$2.6 billion in dents through combined revcatastrophe. — Luis Generoso enue loss. According According to San Diego Water Resource Manager to San Diego officials the water resource manager Luis problem is going to get worse. Generoso, San Diego is preparing Mike Wade, executive director
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The city is preparing for mandatory water conservation and water allocation.
OPINION
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Baseball salaries need a cap PAGE 4
of the California Farm Water Coalition, said farms across California have experienced reduced water supplies ranging from 30 to 100 percent. Statewide on-farm job losses are expected to reach 80 percent by year’s end. Although water makes up over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, less than 1 percent of it is fresh and usable, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric association, however science may be able to make more of it usable. One solution being explored is desalination, the process of taking the salt out of the seawater and distilling it into a drinkable form. According to an article on the “Scientific America” Web site, there are two main methods: thermal distillation and membrane separation. Thermal distillation harnesses heat to separate salt from seawater through evaporation. The evaporated water is captured and when it is condensed it is in a drinkable form. Membrane separation involves a process called reverse osmosis, salt is filtered from water by pushing it through a semipermeable membrane. “In either desalination process,
ENTERTAINMENT
“Street Fight” stands the test of time PAGE 7
ROB BACON | THE TELESCOPE
Lake Hodges Reservoir is currently at 69 percent capacity. All the reservoirs in San Diego County are similarly low due to the drought. you can start with seawater with about 3.5 percent salt and produce really fresh drinking water that is about 10 times fresher than premium bottled water,” said Al Trujillo, professor of oceanography at Palomar College. Although methods for removing salt from seawater have existed for years, the energy required to run such a facility always made
FOCUS
Tips for managing your credit PAGE 8
it more costly than simply relying on sources like river or ground water. A shrinking supply and higher costs have rekindled interest in desalination locally, with Poseidon Resources’ the Carlsbad Desalination Project. According to its Web site, the construction will begin this year and it should be operational by 2011.
SPORTS
Comets win back-to-back championships PAGE 12