EAST COAST BURGER SPOT LANDS
PILL POPPERS AT RISK
New Five Guys set to compete with local west coast food chains.
‘Study drugs’ hold dangerous consequences for students.
[A&E, PG. 6]
[FOCUS, PG. 9]
FOCUSED ON PALOMAR
the telescope Monday, March 7, 2011
Vol. 64, No. 16
Palom ar pol collec t $280 ice ,000 i parki n ng tic kets
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Campus o fficers tic keted mo in 2009, c re than 14 osting dri ,000 cars vers $36 per ticket Palomar police handed out $280,000 in parking tickets last year. Officers wrote 14,279 tickets in 2009 alone – that’s one ticket for every two students. Students ticketed for parking in a campus lot without a permit, the most common offense, must pay $36 to the campus police department. That money goes straight to the Palomar general fund, the college’s main bank account that holds money for a variety of programs and efforts. The ticket money is earmarked for equipment, police officer training and parking permit enforcement, said campus police Chief Anthony Cruz. “Bail amounts are reviewed annually,” Cruz wrote in an email. “Recommendations are made to maintain a reasonable level of consistency with other agencies for each type of violation.”
the police. Once received, ticket money is split into two accounts. One goes to the campus police, and the other is used to pay state fees. In 2010, $90,000 in ticket revenue went to paying state fees, leaving $190,000 for the college. The state fee levels directly affect ticket prices. When state officials raised fees by $5 last year, Palomar’s ticket prices jumped by the same amount. The price boost was ultimately approved by the SPC in Fall 2010. Two students were on the police committee that recommended the increase. Palomar’s ticket cost is similar to other colleges in the area. Parking citations at Mira Costa College in Oceanside carry a $30 fine, according to Mira Costa police aide Karissa Aki. And ticket settlements cost $40 at San Diego State University, where enrollment and parking is much more impacted than at Palomar, said Jeri Mendiola, a student assistant with the SDSU police.
Decoding ticket prices
Dealing with a ticket
shaun kahmann The Telescope
The Strategic Planning Council, one of Palomar’s central governing groups, sets the ticket price. The council is staffed by college administrators and faculty, but has no student members, according to college documents. The campus police committee provides the council with a survey of area ticket prices to help council members decide on new ticket prices. Money garnered from tickets is processed and considered separately from parking permit sales, which go through the administration, not
Tickets must be paid for within 21 days, or the fine will double – to $72. Students who fail to pay two or more tickets have a hold placed on student accounts, preventing them from registering for classes until the fines are paid, Cruz said. “Delinquent fines are reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which will require payment prior to renewing registration for the turn to parking, PAGE 10
Palomar College, San Marcos, Calif.
Center offers veterans counseling, computers
Racheal Saucedo, a Marine Corps veteran, studied in the new Veteran’s Center at Palomar, room SU-22, on Feb. 28. (Rosa Galvan/ The Telescope) kaity bergquist The Telescope
Palomar’s veteran’s center has been getting increased use over the past few years as the number of student veterans increases, officials said last week. In the fall of 2008, the center provided services to 600 veterans. In the fall of 2010, they served 1,000 veterans. Now, only two months into the spring 2011 semester, the center has served 1,018 veterans. “We have such an increased amount of traffic at the college because we have two wars going on,” said Mark Minkler, veteran’s specialist at the center. “We have one of the largest veteran populations of any college in the country.” The veteran’s center consists of two areas, the veteran’s service center and the veteran’s lounge and counseling area. The lounge and counseling area, which opened last October in SU-22, provides veteran students with a place to hang out, study, use computers and printers and get counseling for posttraumatic stress disorder. “A lot of colleges are heading toward having veteran’s centers because it recognizes that veterans have special needs,” Minkler said. “If you’ve been in combat for a year or two and you come back and try to just get back into the college routine, sometimes you need a little extra help.” Outside agencies like the San MarcosVet Center, which has a counseling center in San Marcos, are able to come Palomar. On the first and last Tuesdays of the month, the center provides walk-in counseling sessions from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. turn to veterans, PAGE 10
Through internet, college students counsel high-schoolers on mastering admissions process, academics mark saunders The Telescope
Students looking for a second job have the unique opportunity to make money and counsel high-school students on their own paths to higher education. CollegeSolved is a search-based website that allows students who are seeking information about college campuses to connect with college students attending various colleges.The website’s mission statement said they want, “to fill the information gap,” and, “to connect a global user base of confused applicants with the people that will help guide them.” The counseling program, Collegiate Chat, students can sign up on the CollegeSolved website and set up phone appointments with student counselors across the country. Payment to students is based on the number of appointments taken. Andrew Ullman, cofounder and COO, said turn to internet, PAGE 10