“Batman: Arkham City” is no joke! Page 5
Turn to page 7 and review what occured on Veteran’s Day
Read of the plans of Andres Portillo on page 11
www.theskylineview.com
November 17, 2011
Volume XXX - Issue 7
Occupy Oakland: the occupation persists Citizens take to the streets to protest social inequities By Stephen Benoit
The occupy protests around the country continue, and students around the country are marching for their future and to fight perceived inequalities, but students and recent graduates aren’t the only ones who are involved in the protests. Even professors and people who work in the area were involved in the protests. A negative image has been painted by many media outlets about who the movement is, but if you go for yourself, you’ll see a large variety of people. San Francisco and Oakland are the two local protests of the movement that draw in people from all walks of life, including Skyline students and professors. In fact, the American Federation of Teachers and its local chapter strongly support the movement. One such professor who’s attended a protest is Jeff Diamond, a political science teacher who teaches California and United States Politics at Skyline. “I attended a protest because I think it is important to publicize the growing inequality in our society,” said Diamond. “In my limited experience, I have not seen protesters being violent or endangering public
PHOTOS COURTESY OF
Occupy Oakland protestors take to the streets.
well-being, although obviously some have. This is a serious problem: While the vast majority are peaceful, a few threaten the public perception of the movement either through their stupidity or even possibly as paid agent provocateurs. I hate to seem paranoid, but such things have been done in the past.” Diamond is correct in saying that things like this have been done before. Recently there was evidence
of its being done in Egypt at the protests there to justify violence against the protesters. The protests have been compared to a liberal answer to the Tea Party by a lot of people, but many of the protesters disagree. “In some ways it’s parallel, but in other ways it’s not,” said Doug Sherman, a Skyline English professor. “It looks more like something that’s happened in Egypt, specifi-
GREG COMSTOCK
cally Cairo, than anything the Tea Party has done.” One of the big problems encountered is claims of violence and problems for the businesses in the area. The result has been police employing questionable methods, which has drawn even more attention to the protests. “As for police conduct, mostly from what I hear, it has been varied—in many cases courteous and
professional,” Diamond said. “In some cases criminal, and criminally liable.” The protesters that were spoken to said they saw opportunists, in particular, the easy-to-spot anarchists who were taking advantage of the situation. Protesters felt that these people weren’t an accurate representation of the movement. Even people who work in the area of the protest have similar things to say. “One of the biggest victims in this protest seem to be small business owners in the vicinity, and I feel this has to do partly with the public image the Occupy movement has been given, but also because of the inconvenience their encampments have caused,” said Greg Comstock, a San Francisco resident who works in Oakland. “This is a sad consequence, but I strongly identify with the message that the income disparity in our country is the greater crime.” Police have dispersed the Oakland camp at a humongous expense, but judging from the website organized by the protests, they plan on going strong regardless. So the stalemate between the police and the protesters continues with no end in sight.
New task force suggests new registration policies A recently published report recommends changes to solve colleges’ problems By Blair Hardee It seems as though there’s been nothing but bad news for California community colleges recently, and students and faculty alike are being greatly impacted. Changes need to be made, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office assembled the California Community Colleges Student Success Task Force to brainstorm solutions to our many problems. The recommendations they came up with affect almost every aspect of the community college system, from registration priority to educational planning to course offerings. These recommendations could help solve many issues facing the community college system, such as the obvious budget problems and the significant drop-out rate. However, these solutions require considerable effort on the part of both the students and the teachers, and some changes may not be desirable for everyone. The second chapter of the 76page report the task force published addresses the lack of progress from many community college students. They blame this on lack of guidance throughout the college process. Many of the recommendations in the report are focused on increasing student success, for example by helping them graduate and perhaps transfer to a four-year school. One of the task force’s main concerns is getting students on a structured path
Registration policies will be affected if the suggestions made by the task force are made into statewide requirements.
to meet their goals. One recommendation the task force made is to require students who performed poorly on diagnostic tests (similar to the placement tests many of us take now) and “show a lack of readiness for college” to find a support source, such as a course in student success, which must be provided by the school for new students. Another suggestion in the same chapter is for schools to highly encourage incoming students to declare a program of study upon admission and to require a declaration after two semesters. If a student does not de-
clare a program of study, the student should be provided counseling and educational planning to help them get on track. The task force also sees a problem with the community colleges’ priority enrollment requirements. Currently, priority registration is awarded solely based on accumulation of units. The task force suggests a new set of criteria that will reinforce its mission of creating successful college students. The task force recommends that continuing students who are “in good standing who are making progress toward a certificate, degree, transfer
BLAIR HARDEE/THE SKYLINE VIEW
or career advancement objective” be given priority registration. This would include students who are working on pursuing basic skill building. The task force also believes continuing students should lose their enrollment priority if they either do not follow their educational plan, are placed on academic probation, fail to declare a program of study by their third semester, or earn more than 100 units. Financial aid could also be impacted by the suggestions of the task force. They recommend requiring students who receive Board of
Governors fee waivers to adhere to certain conditions: The student must identify a goal for their education and meet “progress standards” (to be determined at a later date), and the number of units covered by fee waivers would be limited to 110. Course offerings could be directly affected as well. One paragraph in the report details how courses should be funded based on how much they’re included in students’ educational plans. They suggest the state not subsidize any class that is not included in a program of study. They believe this will incentivize schools to push students to come up with a solid path for their educational goals. These recommendations could be positive or negative, depending on who you ask. On one hand, the implementation of these policies could increase graduation rates and better prepare students for the workforce. On the other hand, these suggestions mostly require the use of a lot of resources on the part of the school (for instance, creating success courses for new students or having enough counselors for every single student). These measures will have to be voted on before they can be implemented. There is no definitive date by which the task force thinks these policies will be carried out, but one thing is certain: Our schools are in trouble, which endangers the future and prosperity of our entire state.