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Volume 90 Issue 13 • Feb. 29, 2016
210-486-1773 • Single copies free
Celebrate Women’s History Page 4
11 file in four district races Incumbents are challenged in all four races. By Kyle R. Cotton
kcotton11@student.alamo.edu
By 5 p.m. Feb. 19, 11 candidates had filed for one of four trustee seats open on the May 7 ballot. The Alamo College’s board of trustees serves as the policy maker for the five colleges across the county. By early afternoon Feb. 17 only the four incumbents had filed. District 1 candidates include
incumbent Joe Alderete and artist Juan Hernandez Jr., 64. In District 2, incumbent Denver McClendon will have to fight off three educators in Instructor Paul Marcus Deadrick, 45; retired educator Viviana Valdez Sandoval, 65; and teacher Elmo Murry Aycock III, 39. In District 3, incumbent Anna Bustamante, development consultant Anthony John Alcoser, 34, and National
Guardsman Joschua Kristofer Harvey-Beres, 28, will run. In District 4, incumbent Marcelo Casillas, and educator Phillip “Felipe” Vargas, 38 will face-off. Casillas was appointed when Albert Herrera, former District 4 trustee, resigned March 18, 2015. Herrera was elected in May 2014. The winner of the District 4 race will serve the remainder of Herrera’s term, which ends in 2020. Visit Alamo.edu/board/ elections or call board liaison Sandra Mora at 210-485-0030.
AlamoInstitutes reorganize departments Chairs should see a final draft proposal this week. By Wally Perez
gperez239@student.alamo.edu
B-cycle owner Caleb Choate and station installer Ted Lucas apply grip tape to the newly completed cycle station Wednesday outside Gonzales. This is the second B-cycle station on this campus and 1 of 58 total in the city. Brandon A. Edwards
Department chairs at this college are soon to be downsized with a proposed reorganziation of departments to better fit the AlamoInstitutes. The AlamoInstitutes are career pathways, which include academic programs that suit their respective institute, which include creative and communications arts, business and entrepreneurship, health and biosciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, public service and science and technology.
The last-known proposal had three chairs assigned to the creative and communications arts institute, five to the science and technology institute, one to the business and entrepreneurship institute and three to the public service institute. The proposed plan was distributed during a joint chairs meeting Feb. 4, and chairs were given until Feb. 19 to provide feedback. Chairs submitted feedback to the deans and Dr. Jothany Blackwood, vice president of academic success. Chairs have had the chance to look over the proposal and changes were to be presented to the college executive team Tuesday. It’s all about equity, workload and aligning
See ALAMOINSTITUTES, Page 8
online now Trustees pleased with D.C. trip Faulty wire causes three-day outage in Candler, Scobee
International students can stick together after graduation
Active shooter drill Feb. 11 left faculty, students vulnerable
Chain of communication is one key to a successful drill, risk manager says. By Melissa Luna
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Some students and employees remained in the dark after a less-than-successful active shooter drill at this college Feb. 11. “Something always goes wrong in a drill,” Mike Legg, director of enterprise risk management, said. “That’s the nature of a drill.” When a drill is scheduled to happen, the college must follow a chain of communication to ensure the campus knows about it, he said. Alamo Colleges police dispatch communicates with the college’s building action team, which then communicates with public relations. Every college has its own building action team, which always includes the office of the vice president for student success. PR is then responsible for notifying the general college population about the drill by calling and emailing everyone is in the system, before and after the drill. It is important for students, staff and faculty to keep their contact information up-to-date in Canvas because that is how they will be contacted, Cpl. Adriana De Hoyos said. De Hoyos is this college’s corporal campus coordinator. “What happened Feb. 11 is that the dispatch department didn’t send out the original message to
See ACTIVE, Page 7
Board discusses success at National Legislative Summit. By Kyle R. Cotton
kcotton11@student.alamo.edu
Members of the Alamo College’s board discussed their Feb. 8-12 trip to Washington to the Association of Community College Trustees’ National Legislative Summit and how congressional representatives responded to community college needs. The Alamo Colleges sent District 7 trustee Yvonne Katz, District 9 trustee Clint Kingsbery, District 6 trustee Gene Sprague, District 5 trustee Roberto Zárate and student trustee Sami Adames. The trustees said members of Congress recognized the importance of community colleges to economic development. The summit’s goal was to communicate the national priorities of the association to the Legislature. Kingsbery said during the board’s Feb. 23 meeting at Killen Center, the priorities they stressed to Congress were extensions of Pell grant eligibility, extending Pell grant money use for summer and to extend from 12 semesters to 14. Other priorities were the reauthorization of the Higher Education and Perkins act, each of which authorizes numerous financial aid programs. Katz said members of congress were particularly receptive to ACCT’s suggestion about Pell grants, particularly extensions for summer use so students can get out quicker with three full semesters for the academic year. Katz noted Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and other Texas representatives were appreciative of the perspectives of the four students from Texas, including Sami Adames. “I’ve been to these meeting before, and in the past, it sort of looked like they listen to us. We got our picture taken a lot of times, but this is the first time I saw a recognition
District 2 trustee Denver McClendon laughs Feb. 23 at Killen Center as District 7 trustee Yvonne Katz quotes Catherine Rampell, a Washington Post columnist who spoke at the Association of Community College Trustees’ legislative summit. Rampell said, “Community colleges use to be state funded, then state supported, and now they are just state located.” Kyle R. Cotton of the critical importance of community colleges,” Sprague said. “We’ve been talking to the business community and every single major business, without exception, said community colleges are the most crucial element of economic development in this country and we want to do whatever we can to help,” Sprague said, quoting the chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “I got that same message down the line across the aisle from John Cornyn, (Rep.) Joaquin Castro (D-TX). It was down the line.” “They finally know how important we are,” Sprague said. “We need to reinforce that and stay in touch with our elected officials and tell them about all the great things we are doing.” Sprague said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Castro requested the Alamo College’s data so they could act on it. “I’ve never had that channel opened up to me before.” Zárate, chair of the ACCT board of direc-
tors, noted his meeting with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who are leading the effort for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. “The organization did a great job at positioning our membership and spoke on very pointed and targeted issues and we’re hoping it will have some payback,” Zárate said. Zárate said ACCT offered their resources to the two senators. “The only regret I had was that I couldn’t interact with the Texas group since I was with the national group, but again we all had the same message.” Chancellor Bruce Leslie was not at the meeting, but Diane Snyder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, filled in. Thomas Cleary, vice chancellor of planning, performance, accreditation and information and the acting chancellor in Leslie’s absence, said Leslie was in Colorado on a ski trip and conducting business with FranklinCovey.