Halloween Special inside Scares and spooks galore
Skyline View
The
The Voice of Skyline College, San Bruno, California
Volume XXXV- Issue 5
www.theskylineview.com
October 29, 2015
El Niño season looms
FAFSA shortchanges some Financial aid may not help dependent students by Chrystina Chase TSV Staff Writer
Skyline and surrounding community gear up for wet winter Michelle Kelly / The Skyline View
Water immerses the bus circle on campus during last winter’s storm on Dec. 11, 2014.
by Amber Wong and Andrew Avilla ic Administration government website .And yet, California was still experiencing the peak of the drought. Although the storm produced over 5 inches Skyline College and the surof water, reservoirs and grass rounding community is preparing still appeared drier than ever. for El Niño which has been report- However, this year, state officials ed to be the biggest wet winter the are hoping for a more positive Bay Area has seen in years. impact from the excess amount Research from the National Oce- of rainfall. anic and Atmospheric AdministraSkyline College encountered tion states that this year’s intense flash floods and severe weather storm, referred to as ‘El Niño’, during last year’s storm, and stuwon’t necessarily cause Califordents were unable to get to class. nia’s severe drought to end. ApparSkyline Student Chris Amently, once an extreme storm hits aro said, “At my place it was a certain region of the world, it [flooded]… On El Camino Real, may result in a continuing drought near See’s Candies, the whole period for the following year. intersection was flooded.” This year, El Niño will influence Amaro said he had to drive the storm across the Northern through the deep water to gt to Hemisphere, although climate class, only to find out that classes change has little involvement with were going to be cancelled. its impact towards the drought. In“I’ve read articles in the past stead, scientists predict that fluctu- couple weeks, that encourage ations in sea surface temperatures getting flood insurance bealong the equator are to blame. cause we’re going to get heavy Recently, the National Oceanic [rainfall],” Skyline student Jose and Atmospheric Administration Cartagena said. also published information on Skyline College Science Labtheir website regarding “increasing oratory Technician Gary Cheang warmth developing in the northsaid that students and faculty eastern Pacific”. members were worried about the In December 2014, a powerful flood and its possible destruction rainstorm flooded the Bay Area, to the campus. causing damage to schools, high“We got emails from people ways, and many public facilities. who were bothered by coming Many residents thought the storm into work because of the downed could be equivalent to an El Niño, branches,” he said. but weather reports from the Cheang added that the school National Oceanic and Atmosphercould have taken more mea-
TSV Staff Writer AND tsv STAFF PHOTGRAPHER
sures to prevent the issue from occurring, although he thinks that El Niño will be beneficial this winter. “I think it’s great for the drought, since we’ve been having no rain for the past few years,” he said. Issues regarding the water shortage arose in 2011, when the state first experienced extreme periods of low rainfall. But additional precautions were taken when California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a Drought State of Emergency earlier this year. Shortly after his announcement, a statewide mandatory water reduction was established, a commitment that the San Mateo County Community College District is currently involved in. This involvement includes all three campuses and water usage has already been reduced by over 25 percent since the beginning of the semester. “There has been a reduction in the water usage due to irrigation practices on campus,” Skyline College Sustainability Coordinator Allison Callow said. The District has made a number of substantial changes as far as water reduction and had developed a comprehensive water efficiency program. This has served as a model for not only Skyline but for other colleges in the district as well. “Through the conservation measures that have been taken
Parents with financial assets might be doing some students more harm than good. Over 9,000 students in California have been declared “dependent students” by the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) meaning those students still depend on their parents for assistance or help with going to college but will still need financial assistance when FAFSA is not always enough. According to FAFSA regulation; a dependent student is one who at the time of application is not 24-years-old, married, a veteran of the armed forces, have dependents that receive more than half of their support from the student or are a foster child or a legally emancipated minor. FAFSA determines how much federal aid a student gets, but oftentimes students do not get as much as needed, due to FAFSA assuming that the parent’s salaries alone can pay for college. Fastweb.org states that at the start of the 1992-93 school year, Congress changed the criteria differentiating between a dependent and independent student. The federal government decided that parents had more of an obligation to pay for their child’s education than the government did. Under the Skyline section of the FAFSA Website, during the 2015-16 school year, Skyline has received and accepted 1,615 financial aid applications that have determined the student to have a dependent status. Director of Financial aid Services Regina Morrison says the government determines a student’s need for aid based on the expected financial contribution students or their families can make minus the cost of attendance at a college that the student expects to attend.
A student who is 24 or younger and does not fir the criteria can still receive another type of financial aid. From there, the only federal aid a student can get is to possibly qualify for an unsubsidized student loan that is not guaranteed. There are certain cases called, “unusual circumstances.” Based on the SMCCCD 2015-2016 form, students will fill this out when their FAFSA is rejected due to any unusual circumstances such as the students having parents that are incarcerated, leaving home due to abusive situations, or if they are not adopted but do not know who their parents are and cannot contact them. Students can also qualify if they are older than 21 and homeless or at risk of being homeless. In those instances, the financial aid office can determine that this is an actual circumstance of being determined as an independent student and waive the requirement for the parent’s financial information. Whatever the determination is, it is final and cannot be appealed. Skyline Student Tyler Hudson said that he does not qualify for independent status even though his dad is disabled. “They said his disability and my mom’s income will help out,” Hudson said. “I work and just go to school part time so that I can pay for myself and help out my parents.” Other students have parents who are willing to pay out of pocket. “They are not from this country and the form confused them,” Skyline student Cassie Belcher said. “They just pay for me.” Students who aren’t so luck are encouraged to seek other options. “There are scholarships,” financial aid technician at CSM Thanh Pitetta said. “They fill out the FAFSA, then apply for scholarships. Or get a job to help with the cost. That is all there really is.”
Opinion special pages 5 and 6